
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



Chap. Copyright No.. 

Shelf_____A_ A.6 5 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 

REVELATION OF ST. JOHN 
THE DIVINE 



AN INTERPRETATION 



BY 

A. H. AMES, M.D., D.D. 




NEV.' YORK: EATON & MAINS 
CINCINNATI : CURTS & JENNINGS 






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Copyright by 

EATON & MAINS, 

1897. 



Eaton & Mains Press, 
150 Fifth Avenue, New York. 






preface 



The essay whicli follows is based upon a 
conviction that the closing book of the 
canon of the New Testament, known as 
the Revelation of Saint John, presents the 
thoughts of that holy man and inspired 
apostle upon the subject of the kingdom of 
Christ, as derived by him from the Old 
Testament Scriptures and from the teach- 
ings of Christ or as drawn from direct reve- 
lations made to himself. The book presents 
a single theme and has a well-preserved 
unity. 

With those theories of interpretation 
which would make of the book an epitome 
of history, either as confined to particular 
epochs or as a whole, and which presuppose 
its design to be the prediction of events, 
great or small, in the progress of the world 
or the Church, the writer of this essay is 
not in sympathy. It is mainly because of 
the vagaries and conceits to which these 
theories have opened the way, which have 
clouded rather than cleared the mysteries 



Preface 

of tlie Apocalypse and been more promotive 
of strife than of salvation, that so many 
thoughtful and pious minds have been 
driven from the study of what is one of the 
most beautiful, as it is one of the most prac- 
tical, parts of the word of God. How readily 
the coincidences, for such they are, which 
have been appealed to as verifications of 
these theories may be explained and ac- 
counted for will be shown in the course of 
the essay. 

Questions of criticism or scholarship do 
not lie within the scope of the essay. It is 
assumed, not, however, without examina- 
tion and reflection, that the Revelation is 
the work of John, the son of Zebedee, one 
of the twelve, and *^ the disciple whom Je- 
sus loved.'' It is also assumed that he was 
the author of the fourth gospel and of the 
epistles which bear his name. 

Commentaries upon the Revelation have 
been so numerous that their titles would 
fill a volume. It is not likely that anything 
can be said concerning it which is entirely 
new and has not been somewhere set forth. 
The writer of this essaj claims originality 
so far as that he has not seen the views 
here expressed elsewhere presented, al- 

4 



Preface 

though they may have appeared previously 
It is not possible for him to say whence he 
has gathered the material which has grown 
into the essay, so as to make formal ac- 
knowledgment. Alford, Bengel, Heng- 
stenberg, Wordsworth, The Speaker s Com- 
mentary, Ellicott's Commentary, The Exposi- 
tor s Bible have been consulted freely, and 
also The Symbolic Parables of the Apocalypse, 
published by T. and T. Clark. The best 
commentary upon the Revelation he has 
found to be the Scriptures themselves. 
Washington, D. C. 



Contents 



INTRODUCTION 

Rules of Interpretation — The Structure of the Book — 
Reference to Old Testament — Emblems Interpreted by 
Light of Jewish Scriptures and Ritual — Particular Atten- 
tion to Numbers Pages 1-26 

PART I 

The Seven Churches of Asia, or the Kingdom as it Actually 
was in the Days of the Apostles and is Now 29-35 

PART II 

P'undamental Principles on Which the Kingdom is Based — 
Emblem of the wSeals — Opening of the Seals — The Sealed 
Elect 39-52 

PART III 
The Means by which the Kingdom of Christ is Advanced — 
Natural Providences — The Two Witnesses, or the Su- 
pernatural Scriptures 55"97 

PART IV 

The Foes of the Kingdom — The Dragon — First Wild Beast, 
or Spirit of Worldliness — Second Wild Beast, or Spirit 
of False Prophetism — Anticipations of Victory. . 101-166 

PART V 

The Counterfeit of the Kingdom, or the False Church — The 
Judgments of God — Vision of the Vials — Babylon and 

its Doom — Methods of Success Reiterated 169-202 

1 



Contents 

PART VI 

Progressive Steps by Which the Ideal Kingdom is to be 
Realized — Restraints upon the Power of Satan — Outpour- 
ing of the Holy Spirit under the Emblem of Resurrection 
— Union of Christian Believers — Final Triumph over Bar- 
barism under the Emblem of Gog and Magog. . . 205-258 

PART VII 

The Ideal of the Kingdom — Its Distinctive Features — The 
Central Principle of the Kingdom — Negative Character- 
istics — Fruits and Results 261-276 

8 



IFntrobuction 



Rules of Interpretation 

If the Revelation of Saint John has any 
right to a place in the canon of the New 
Testament, it is reasonable to presume that 
its intention was to conform to that general 
purpose for which all divinely inspired 
Scripture is said to be given, namely, to 
'' be profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for 
correction, for instruction in righteousness : 
that the man of God may be perfect, thor- 
oughly furnished unto all good works." 

What peculiarly distinguishes it is that 
it clothes spiritual truth with a garb of mys- 
tery which, by challenging investigation, 
stimulates inquiry; which affords to the 
mind that solves its obscurities the satisfac- 
tion always to be found in the discovery of 
the recondite and difficult; which throws 
around prose realities the pleasing charm of 
poetry and art; and which, by connecting 
material things with a divine revelation, 
and thus linking together nature and the 
supernatural, attests the unity of the uni- 



Introduction 

verse in which we are placed and shows 
the world about us and human history to be 
fuUof the presence of God. 

It would surely argue great presumption 
in any man to claim a perfect understand- 
ing of a book so marvelous as the Apoca- 
lypse, whose teachings are not for one age, 
but for all ages. Very confidently, how- 
ever, it may be asserted that by the use of 
certain rules of interpretation many of its 
mysteries may be explained and its applica- 
tion to practical life and conduct be made 
evident. The reasonableness of these rules 
would be readily admitted if applied to any 
other part of holy writ ; and hesitation to 
accept them here proceeds solely from that 
mistaken view of the design of the Reve- 
lation which isolates it from the rest of 
the sacred canon as something anomaioms 
and unique. So far is this from being 
the case that no book in the Bible can 
afford to stand by itself so little as the 
Apocalypse, inasmuch as there is no other 
into the fabric of which so much of the 
other Scriptures is intentionally woven. 
The impression which close study of it 
makes is that it was designed by its author 
to serve as a sacred clasp to bind together 

10 



Introduction 

and hold in harmonious coherence the whole 
of God's wonderful volume. 

The principles of interpretation deserving 
special notice are four in number. 

I . The structure of the book itself furitishes 
some guide to its interpretation. 

The opening chapters comprise brief let- 
ters, seven in all, which the author is di- 
rected to write to seven churches of Asia, 
the number indicating, not that these com- 
prehended all the churches in that region, 
but that in them w^ere represented all phases 
of religious life. These letters set before 
us both the spiritual state and the environ- 
ment of the churches, and are advisory, 
monitory, reproachful, or comforting as the 
cases demanded. 

The closing chapters present us with a 
picture of the perfected Christian Church — 
a symbolical vision, incomparable in its ex- 
quisite beauty, of the complete and perma- 
nent triumph of the Gospel of Christ, in 
the individual heart and on the larger field 
of the world, over all opposing forces ; the 
realization, in fact, on earth of the ideal 
kingdom of God made ready for the Lamb. 

The most plausible suggestion, therefore, 

which presents itself is that the intermediate 

11 



Introduction 

portion of the book is intended to pre- 
sent in its figures and symbols the means 
by which the last condition is to be reached 
from the earlier one, the unformed and 
fluctuating state of the beginning developed 
into the ripeness and perfection of the close, 
and that under the guise of metaphor, 
trope, and vision there are revealed to us 
the dangers which the Church of Christ 
must expect, the enemies it must subdue, 
the weapons by which victory must be 
achieved, the encouragements upon which 
it may rely, and, in short, the steps through 
which the immature and carnal must be led 
in order to reach up to the pure and perfect. 
Nor is it with the Church at large that 
the warnings and counsels have alone to do. 
If '' whatsoever things were written afore- 
time were written for our learning,'' each 
individual disciple of Christ may find in this 
book a chart for his own life's journey and 
have sufficient warning against the sunken 
rocks, the adverse tides, the dangerous 
headlands which are to be shunned, and 
which are here so clearly and plainly marked 
out for him that he may, in the close and 
careful study of the map, find equal profit 
and pleasure. 

12 



Introduction 

It is very important in this connection to 
note the statement of the writer in the first 
verse of the book, that his commission was 
*'to show tmto " the servants of God 
*' things which must shortly come to pass." 
It is only by a very forced construction of 
the words that they can be made to signify 
a prophecy whose fulfillment is to be delayed 
for long centuries indefinite in their number. 
The most natural construction surely is that 
the revelation intrusted to him is one of 
which the whole, and not a part only, is to 
find its application in the times in which he 
lived, or soon thereafter, and to continue 
applicable until the glorious result is at- 
tained of which the closing part speaks. 
And if we shall dismiss from our minds all 
prepossessions springing out from, that view 
of the book which makes it a syllabus, or 
table of contents, of Christian history the 
force of this remark v/ill more clearly ap- 
pear. 

2. Reference mtcst constantly be made to the 
Old Testament, 

This rule, which is of importance in order 
to understand any part of the New Testa- 
ment, becomes of the highest necessity in 
any attempt to interpret the Revelation. 

13 



Introduction 

The writer was evidently a diligent student 
of the older Scriptures, absorbing their 
images and emblems until they had become 
a part of himself. Much in his writings 
that at first seems obscure becomes plain 
when we put ourselves in his position and 
study the vScriptures, which wxre evidently 
in his thoughts. 

The prophetical books of the Old Testa- 
ment especially are to be studied. Between 
the relation in which the older prophets 
stood to the laws and institutions of Moses 
and that which the apostles of the New 
Testament dispensation sustained to the 
Lord Jesus Christ a strong similarity ex- 
ists. Neither the one nor the other claimed 
to be originators or independent discoverers, 
but rather witnesses to truths already re- 
vealed, which they accepted as primary and 
fundamental facts. Into the clear under- 
standing, indeed, of these they were ena- 
bled by divine inspiration to look more 
deeply than others could, and they were 
also supernaturally aided to draw them out 
into great principles, capable of application 
to human thought and conduct in the shap- 
ing of individual and national life and prac- 
tice. Thus, naturally and by sympathy of 

u 



Introduction 

condition, the later writers found themselves 
led into careful and profound study of their 
predecessors. The prophecies of Daniel 
and Zechariah deserve to be especially con- 
sulted. Written, as they were, at or near 
the time of the captivity of Judah, they had 
peculiar interest for one who v^^as himself an 
exile for the truth. Some of the imagery of 
the Revelation is dravrn from the glov/ing 
poetry of Isaiah. And almost the entire 
Book of Joel has been worked into the 
Apocalypse. 

But of all helps to an understanding of 
the Revelation the most fruitful is a close 
and careful comparison with the Book of 
Ezekiel ; especially is this the case in refer- 
ence to the closing chapters of both. Be- 
tween the authors of these two works there 
were striking similarities of character and 
condition. But a more povN^erful bond of 
union is found in the fact that both of them 
were preeminently prophets of the Holy 
Spirit, seeming to have reached truer and 
profounder views of his work in the econ- 
omy of redemption than any predecessors 
in their separate dispensations. Isaiah and 
Paul w^rote of Christ and his Church ; but 
if we wish to learn the fullest development 

15 



Introduction 

of the office of the Holy Ghost we must 
turn to the pages of Ezekiel and John. 

In addition to the Old Testament refer- 
ences, the prophetical discourses of our 
Lord uttered near the close of his ministry 
and recorded in the synoptical gospels will 
throw much light on the Book of Revela- 
tion. The omission of these from the gos- 
pel of John may be accounted for by the 
fact that in the Revelation the apostle had 
made such large use of them. The impor- 
tant prediction of Paul concerning the man 
of sin, found in 2 Thess. ii, must also be 
compared with those of John. 

3 . The e^nbleins and symbols of the Revelation 
must be interpreted by the light of the Jewish 
Scripticres and ritual. 

This, indeed, follows as a corollary form 
the preceding rule, but is of so much im- 
portance as to deserve special mention. 
Sometimes a word or a figure of speech or 
the connections of a sentence or a passing 
allusion to some sacrificial service will afford 
a clew to what at the time was in the mind 
of the writer. Inasmuch as he was a Jew, 
' ' taught according to the perfect manner 
of the law of the fathers,*' familiar with the 
Scriptures, traditions, usages, and history 

16 



Introduction 

of his religion, his interpretation of sym- 
bols and emblems would naturally be sueh 
as would occur to the mind of a Jew. We 
must place ourselves as near as possible to his 
standpoint. Yet, as he was also an inspired 
apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be 
prepared to concede that he read deeper into 
these mysteries than his fellows did and was 
able to import into them a richer meaning. 

4. Particular attention imcst be given to 
the numbers found in the book. 

Much that is fanciful and extravagant 
has, it must be conceded, been written on 
this subject, and to many persons any dis- 
cussion of it is distasteful. Yet it is certain, 
as the Wisdom of Solomon says, that God 
has ''ordered all things in measure and 
number and weight." Otherwise there 
could be no such thing as exact science. 
Truths lie veiled in figures, for these repre- 
sent fixed principles and plans in the divine 
mind. As a general truth, it may be stated 
that the ideas expressed by numbers, not 
only in this book, but throughout the Bible, 
whenever these are used symbolically, are 
those of fullness, exactness, and perfection, 
on one hand, or deficiency, incompleteness, 
and imperfection, on the other. 

17 



Introduction 

The numbers which figure most largely 
in symbolism are seven, twelve, six, and 
tliree and a half. 

Seven is called the sacred number, and 
seems to express the idea of perfection or 
fullness to the highest degree and in the 
most unlimited sense. As seven days make 
a complete week, whole and entire, without 
redundancy or deficiency, so that to which 
the number seven is attached must be taken 
as perfect, fully developed, as a complete 
whole. The expressions '* seven spirits," 
'' seven seals,'* '' seven trumpets,'' etc., im- 
ply that what they represent must be taken 
as entire, with no possible capacities lying 
in them unexhausted. 

Twelve, also, signifies completeness; but 
its use and application are more restricted. 
It is usually connected with the Church of 
God, and possibly has some special reference 
to it. Thus there are twelve patriarchs, 
twelve apostles, twelve foundations to the 
holy city. As the number is formed by the 
multiplication of three, representing the 
Trinity, and four, representing the world 
with its quarters, it conveys the thought of 
universality as the assured destiny of the 
Church. 

18 



Introduction 

Six is, also, as a symbol, connected with 
the Church; but, both because it is less 
than seven, and only the half of twelve, 
has a sinister significance. It represents 
the malign and baleful influences which cor- 
rupt and disintegrate the Church, shearing 
it of its power, limiting and obstructing its 
mission, and leaving it incomplete, defec- 
tive, and corrupt. 

Three and a half is a number having 
special signification and requiring particu- 
lar investigation. A correct appreciation 
of its meaning will throw light upon some 
of the most obscure portions of the Apoca- 
lypse. 

It occurs — and is, indeed, the only num- 
ber of which this may be said — in various 
forms. Since three and a half years com- 
prise forty-two months, and since forty-two 
months of thirty days each (the usual pro- 
phetical computation) equal twelve hundred 
and sixty days, we may take these three 
forms, three and a half, forty-two, and twelve 
hundred and sixty, as equivalent expres- 
sions. So, also, the expression, ''a time, 
times, and the dividing of times '* (i+2+|- 
= 3^)y is probably but another form of 
this number. That some law governs the 

19 



Introduction 

choice of these various forms is probable ; 
but what, it is does not appear. 

Since three and a half falls short of seven, 
it designates incompleteness. But, inas- 
much as it is the exact half of seven (in 
this differing from six), it signifies an in- 
completeness which has, so to speak, a com- 
pleteness of its own — that is, an incom- 
pleteness which is not anomalous and ir- 
regular, such as would be expressed by six, 
but one which is, by the appointment of 
God or as a result of its own nature, in- 
tended to be such. Any period of time or 
epoch in human history which has pre- 
scribed and well-marked limits or bound- 
aries, any part of the plan of Providence 
which has a specified, but only temporary 
and partial purpose as related to the whole 
course and complete plan of the divine 
Being, is always designated by one or the 
other of the forms of this number. • 

Judaism, for instance, answered these 
conditions. It was a providentially ordered 
dispensation, but with a specific and limited 
object ; fulfilling a definite, but not the com- 
plete purpose of Providence ; a stage in the 
movement of humanity toward the kingdom 
of God, but not itself the realization of that 

20 



Introduction 

kingdom ; a type which needed an antit}^pe 
to round it ont, and throughout which ran 
the marks that proved it to be only tem- 
porary and preparatory to a higher dispen- 
sation into which it was to blossom. It was 
" a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ/* 
Its glory was something which was * ' to be 
done away/' and consequently falls short 
of '' that which remaineth." And it reached 
the '' fullness " of its '^ time " when '' God 
sent forth his Son, made of a w^oman, made 
under the law, to redeem them that were 
under the law, that we might receive the 
adoption of sons." And it will be found 
that whenever Judaism is symbolized by a 
number in the Book of Revelation, it is des- 
ignated by one of the allotropic forms of 
three and a half.^ 

So, likewise, Gentilism, to which a defi- 
nite and distinct character or purpose is at- 
tributed, both by our Lord (Luke xxi, 24) 
and by Saint Paul (Rom xi, 25), but which, 
when severed from its Jewish antecedents, 
has the like features of incompleteness and 
deficiency, would be symbolically expressed 
by some form of the same number. f 

So generally accepted seems to have been 

* See Rev. xi, 3 ; xii, 6, 14. f See Rev. xiii, 5. 

21 



Introduction 

this symbolical use of numbers that it ap- 
pears even in such pure and simple prose as 
the gospels. The evangelist Matthew, in 
recording the genealogy of our Lord, divides 
the period between Abraham and Christ 
into three cycles with fourteen generations 
in each, or forty-two in all. This period is 
exactly coeval with Judaism as a distinct 
dispensation ; and forty-two is, as we have 
seen, one of the interchangeable forms of 
the number three and a half. Inasmuch 
as the actual number of generations was, 
as is generally agreed, more than forty-two, 
and some principle of accommodation must 
have controlled the evangelist in choosing 
it, we have a right to conjecture that the 
symbolism was so well established that 
no erroneous impression would be con- 
veyed. 

Using these rules of interpretation as a 
guide, it will be found that many, if not 
most of the obscurities which have made 
this book so perplexing and incomprehen- 
sible will be removed. A unity of purpose 
will be seen pervading it. It will no longer 
appear anomalous and otitre, but harmoni- 
ous with the rest of the oracles of God ; a 
book for the perusal of every individual be- 

22 



Introduction 

liever, no matter liow simple and unlearned 
he may be ; having direct reference to his 
heart-experience and his moral conduct ; a 
vade mecitm for the journey of life through 
whose aid he may safely encounter the dan- 
gers and surely overcome the hindrances 
he may meet. 

The great theme which the inspired 
writer and apostle here sets before us is the 
mediatorial kingdom of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. The principles which lie at the 
basis of that kingdom — the oppositions, ex- 
ternal and internal, to its beginning and 
completion, the agencies, divine and human, 
upon which reliance must be placed to 
achieve success, its superiority to and tri- 
umph over all hostile forces, and all these 
both in the heart of each individual Chris- 
tian and in that aggregation of Christians 
which we call the Church — are here deline- 
ated as they were revealed to Saint John. 

The theories which make of this book an 
anticipation of history, and which find in 
the events of the last nineteen centuries 
continued fulfillments of its predictions, or 
which confine those fulfillments to the 
periods either near the primitive age or 
near the future and final scenes of the 

23 



Introduction 

drama of time are regarded as being not 
wholly erroneous, but incomplete and 
partial. 

That the great purposes of divine Provi- 
dence are continually finding their fulfill- 
ment in the history of men and nations is 
a truth not confined to this book, but spread 
throughout all the sacred Scriptures. The 
laws of the divine administration are very 
exact; they can be neither obeyed nor dis- 
regarded without the necessary accompani- 
ments of legitimate and appointed conse- 
quences. There is no improbability at all 
that moral and spiritual truths may have 
their processes and cycles of development, 
just as natural things have their seasons 
and times of maturity. Whether the events 
that have occurred, the organized bodies, sec- 
ular or religious, that have appeared on the 
field of the world, were in the mind of the 
apostle as he wrote is a question neither 
affirmed nor denied. What is meant to be 
said is that the Revelation does more than 
merely predict results. It goes down into 
the profound region of causes and reveals 
the continuity of the plans of the divine 
Being. However ingenious or plausible, 
therefore, the explanations put upon the 

24 



Introduction 

prophecies of this book bj^ the theories 
spoken of above, it is not confined to them. 
As long as the world lasts there will be, in 
every age and in the experience of every 
believer, a fulfillment of the truths here 
set forth. Its warnings and comforts will 
never be out of date. Its promises and its 
threats are alike imperishable, for they are 
a part of that ''word of our God" which 
''shall stand forever." 

A definition of the phrase ' ' kingdom of 
Christ" is nowhere attempted in the Rev- 
elation. It was not needed in an age when 
the theme was the staple of preaching and 
teaching. To show that it must not be 
confounded with the visible Church was the 
purpose of the epistles to the churches of 
Asia with which the Apocalypse begins. 
The fundamental principle upon which the 
kingdom is founded, the universal sov- 
ereignty of Christ based upon his redemp- 
tive work, is taught under the emblem of the 
seals. The writer then advances to the in- 
strumentalities, natural and supernatural, 
by means of which the kingdom is to be 
brought to its consummation. The antag- 
onisms which the kingdom must encounter 
from foes without and within are next 

25 



Introduction 

plainly revealed, and, lest the revelation 
may cause discouragement, prophecies of 
sure and final victory mingle with warn- 
ings. The retributive resources of the 
kingdom, the just judgments which fall 
upon its foes, and especially upon the false 
and counterfeit Church, are taught under 
the emblem of the vials. The next section 
discloses to us the stages of progress through 
which the kingdom ascends to its complete 
establishment, and the signs by which we 
may test its advance or detect its decline. 
And finally, with that glowing picture of 
the ideal kingdom as it shall be realized on 
earth when the Galilean shall have con- 
quered, a picture so beautiful that our high- 
est conceptions of heaven seem embodied 
in it, the divine seer closes his rapturous 
vision. 

26 



PART I 
trbe Seven Cburcbes of Hsia 



IRevelation of Saint ^ohn 
the ©ivine 



PART I 



The Seven Churches of Asia^ or^ the Kingfdom 
as it Actually was in the Days of the Apostles 
and is now 

The chapters which contain the epistles to 
the churches of Asia need not detain us long ; 
not that they are devoid of interest, but be- 
cause anything like a commentary upon the 
text lies outside the scope and design of this 
essay, whose purpose is to interpret the 
general intent of the book itself. 

The value of these letters to us lies in the 
pictures presented in them of the religious 
state of the churches to which they were ad- 
dressed, and w^hich doubtless were repre- 
sentative of the Christian world in the days 
of the writer. The reading of them will 
dispel any illusion in which we may have 
indulged as to the superiority of the apos- 
tolical age over subsequent ones, and will 
shatter any hypothesis we may have formed 

29 



Revelation of Saint John 

that primitive Christianity was anything like 
Utopia. The condition of the churches 
which they reveal to us was one in which 
doubt and faith, loyalty and declension, 
purity and worldliness, evil and good were 
interspersed in varying proportions. The 
tares had already begun to grow with the 
wheat. 

And a moment's reflection will convince us 
that no other result could reasonably be ex- 
pected. Divine grace does not obliterate 
human nature, and its operations are always 
in accordance with rule. The regeneration 
of a soul is not synonymous with its entire 
sanctification. Growth is an invariable ac- 
companiment of life. It would have been 
a new and altogether anomalous state of 
things if the average of conduct attained by 
converts from Jewish and pagan standards 
of thought and morals had equaled that to 
which we may aspire in whom centuries of 
training in the family, the State, and the 
Church have created a Christian conscious- 
ness. Fervor and zeal the early disciples 
unquestionably had, but with sad mixture 
of inconsistency, inexperience, and weak- 
ness. 

It has always seemed hard for Christians 

30 



The Seven Churches of Asia 

to comprehend and fully believe the prom- 
ise which our Lord gave to the Church 
through the apostles, that the Holy Ghost, 
when he should come, should '' abide " with 
it ''forever/' And this abiding presence 
throughout all ages of the Spirit of truth is 
not to be in partial or transient manifesta- 
tion, but in all the fullness of his divine 
offices. And attention must be called to the 
fact that John, in unfolding the processes 
and forces by which the kingdom of Christ 
is to be brought to its triumphant complete- 
ness, points us at the beginning of his 
prophecy (Rev. iv, 5) to the seven spirits of 
God '' burning before the throne," as if to 
impress upon us the perfection of degree in 
which the Holy Spirit gives himself to this 
work. This does not mean that there is 
monotonous identity in the modes of his 
manifestation, or that the work that he does 
is the same in kind with that which he has 
done in the past. We are expressly told 
that ' ' there are diversities of gifts, but the 
same spirit. And there are diversities of 
administrations, but the same Lord. And 
there are diversities of operations, but it 
is the same God that worketh all in all/' 
Some thines which God does he never re- 



Revelation of Saint John 

peats. His special presence or work at 
some periods and in some things does not 
imply that he is any the less, while not in 
the same special way, present at all times 
and in all things. 

''In the beginning God created the heaven 
and the earth." That was done once for 
all. From that period up to this time, in- 
deed, the '' Father worketh; " but it is not 
as Creator, but as Providence, developing 
and evolving from that beginning the possi- 
bilities that lay in it. What we call science 
is the record of this development, aiming 
only at the accurate presentation of the facts 
of providence and the adaptation of them to 
human needs and destiny. Nature is the 
terminus ad quern toward which discovery 
and invention tend, not the terminus a quo 
from which they start. Progress in them 
does not mean adding anything to nature 
or superseding it or leaving it behind and 
moving to something beyond it, but merely 
approaching closer to it, bringing us to bet- 
ter knowledge of and fuller acquaintance 
with it. 

So, likewise, that inspiration of the Holy 
Ghost by which holy men of God were 
moved to speak and write what was specially 

32 



The Seven Churches of Asia 

revealed to them is never to be repeated. 
The lines along which and the limits within 
which the Christian Church is to be led were 
laid down once for all, as those of nature 
also were. The work of the Spirit now is 
that of a Providence to bring to realization 
the ideal then foreshadowed ; and in doing 
this he has divine freedom to breathe where 
and when he listeth. Pentecost was the 
commencement of a process of which the 
closing chapters of the Revelation disclose 
the completion. And in order to attain this 
end the perpetual presence and indwelling 
of the Holy Spirit are promised in all their 
richness and perfection, but in accordance 
with the laws of human nature and w4th 
constant increments of knowledge and 
power. 

It is vain, therefore, to claim command- 
ing authority for any ceremony, formula, 
or organization on the ground that it cor- 
responds with primitive Christianity. The 
apostles never felt themselves bound to that 
first sketch of the Church which they drew 
at Pentecost, as if this were among the 
things supernaturally revealed ; but the}^ 
modified and revised it whenever they 
could say, '' It seemed good to the Holy 

3 83 



Revelation of Saint John 

Ghost and to us/* Nor have we any reason 
to believe that the process of evolution 
which continued throughout their lives 
ended therewith. The Holy Spirit did not 
then cease his work of guidance and in- 
spiration. That is the truest and most 
apostolical Christianity which, like John, 
being '4n the Spirit on the Lord's day," 
holds itself ever ready to hear and obey the 
*' great voice, as of a trumpet," behind and 
above it. 

And this is the lesson we are to learn 
from the seven epistles to the churches of 
Asia. They are the record of the begin- 
ning of the kingdom of Christ, repeated in 
the conversion and regeneration of every 
individual Christian, They show the point 
of departure from which progress is to be 
made toward the consummation and per- 
fection of the ideal. The Christian world 
as it was then, with its graces and its 
faults, is disclosed to us. The apostle, with 
his clearer eye, was able to look below the 
facts and recognize the principles struggling 
for the ascendency ; and, using these facts 
as his data, he drew from them a prophecy 
of the development of the kingdom of 
Christ of marvelous interest and instruction 

34 



The Seven Churches of Asia 

for all subsequent ages. Nor is there a 
single force, friendly or hostile to the king- 
dom, which does not appear in the warn- 
ings or encouragements he is directed to 
write to these infant churches. Whoever 
will take the sketch of the kingdom as it 
actually appeared to the eye of John, and 
contrast it with the culmination of the 
process so exquisitely pictured in the last 
two chapters of the Apocalypse, will have 
some conception of the field over which he 
must travel if he would ''come in the unity 
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the 
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the 
measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ.'^ 

85 



PART n 

3fun5amental principles on wbicb tbe 
1RingI>om is 3BaseO 



Fundamental Principles 



PART II 

Fundamental Principles on which the Kingdom 
is Based^ Emblem of the Seals 

With the fonrtli chapter the S5'mbolical 
part of the Revelation begins, and continues 
to the end of the book. In that portion of 
it upon which we now enter, and which in- 
cludes chapters iv-viii, i, the emblem of a 
seal is employed so frequently as to make 
it the distinctive feature. We are told of a 
book ''sealed with seven seals" which none 
but the Lamb is worthy to open. Then we 
are told of the opening of these seals, with 
visions accompanying the successive loosing 
of them. And, lastly, a specific number of 
persons sealed in their foreheads are shown 
us, following which an innumerable com- 
pany is seen gathered before the throne of 
God. It behooves us to ascertain the typical 
meaning of a seal ; and if we succeed in so 
doing the purpose of the writer will be dis- 
closed. 

I. The Emblem of the Seals, — The seal has 
been usually taken as signif}dng conceal- 
ment or secrecy ; sealed things have been 
regarded as synonymous with hidden things. 

39 



Revelation of Saint John 

And very much conjecture has been offered 
as to what were the hidden mysteries con- 
tained in the sealed book or scroll. But, 
whatever secondary meaning the seal may 
have, concealment is not its principal one. 
A seal denotes, primarily and specifically, 
ownership, not secrecy. The sealing of 
anything implies that it is, or is claimed to 
be, the propert}^ of him who affixes the seal. 
The outward stamp is the declaration that 
the owner makes of his rights and is the 
official token of his authority. It is the 
mark of lordship or seigniority. Any con- 
cealment of contents therein involved is a 
secondary consideration. 

Some illustrations from Scripture will 
substantiate this interpretation. 

When it is said (Rom. iv, 1 1) that Abra- 
ham received '' the sign of circumcision, a 
seal of the righteousness of the faith which 
he had/' it is meant that he then became in 
a special sense the personal property of Al- 
mighty God and entitled to all the protec- 
tion of Omnipotence. 

' ' He that hath received his testimony 
hath set to his seal [' hath set his seal to 
this,* Revised Version] that God is true'' 
(John iii, 33), means that the assured con- 

40 



Fundamental Principles 

viction of God's reality and faithfulness has 
become the personal possession of the be- 
liever, something which belongs to him of 
right. 

^^Him hath God the Father sealed'' 
(John vi, 27) means that God officially rati- 
fies and acknowledges as his own what 
Christ does, and attests it with the stamp of 
authority. 

When Pilate sealed the sepulcher where 
Christ was laid (Matt, xxvii, 66) it was 
meant that the tomb became the property 
of the Roman empire and was under the 
guardianship of its officials, and that who- 
ever tampered with it must be prepared to 
try questions with Caesar. 

''Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit '' 
(Eph. i, 13) means that ye received as your 
own possession, in your own personal ex- 
perience, the earnest of your inheritance ; 
the gift of the Holy Spirit attests your 
rightful claim to it. 

These examples will suffice to indicate 
the scriptural meaning of the seal. We 
have only to apply this meaning to the so- 
lution of the problem before us. ''A book 
written within and on the back side,'' that 
is, completely, all over, with no blank or 

- 41 



Revelation of Saint John 

empty space, is seen lying in the right hand 
of God on the throne. Plainly, this book 
with its contents signifies something over 
which the divine Being asserts supreme 
sovereignty, which he claims as his of right 
and alone. And the number of the seals — 
seven — indicates that this sovereignty is 
complete, undivided, perfect. 

What the contents of the book were we 
may infer from the preceding chapter (iv), 
in which we are shown the court of the 
Lord God omnipotent, with his loyal and 
obedient servants and hierarchies worship- 
ing him and saying, '' Thou hast created all 
things, and for thy pleasure they are and 
were created.*' The book with its seals is 
a symbol of the fundamental truth of all 
truths, that all things and beings in this 
universe, whatever and wherever they are, 
belong originally and normally to the Cre- 
ator. His sovereio-ntv over his creatures is 
absolute, illimitable, and eternal. 

It is quite in accordance with John's cast 
of mind (and this furnishes no slight evi- 
dence as to the authorship of the Revela- 
tion) in unfolding to us the plan of redemp- 
tion to take his stand at that period in the 
past, far back and without date, when God 

42 



Fundamental Principles 

was all in all, and when sin had not entered 
to dispute his supremacy; just as in his 
gospel he commences, not with the Christ 
in the maturity of his powers, or even in- 
carnate in the flesh, but with the preexistent 
Word who was ^4n the beginning," ''was 
with God,'' and '' was God." Profoundest of 
all the apostles, his mind reveled in the con- 
templation of beginnings and ends, of the 
primeval origin and final consummation of 
things, of the alpha and omega of creation. 

But along with this vision of sovereignty 
came the coincident remembrance of the 
universe as it is, disordered and in rebellion ; 
of a sinful world wandering from its orbit, 
disputing the supremacy of its Maker and 
God, and in unequal and hopeless conflict 
with Omnipotence. Into whose possession 
should it pass, and who could assume the 
reins of power which seemed to have fallen 
from the hands of the Creator? 

A thought similar to this appears to have 
passed through the mind of Isaiah when he 
turned from the vision of the throne ' ' high 
and lifted up," with the seraphim veiling 
their faces in the presence of holy Majesty, 
to the spectacle of himself and the world, 
and cried, '' Woe is me ! for I am undone." 

43 



Revelation of Saint John 

So John '' wept much** when, after this 
view of immaculate purity combined with 
almightiness, he contemplated a sinful world 
powerless to dispute what it would not will- 
ingly obey. Who was there worthy to 
''open the book** and to ''loose the seals 
thereof,** and thus to bring back creatures 
to their rightful allegiance? If they would 
not submit, yet could not resist, the result 
could be only disaster, for the heavens 
must rule, and successful rebellion was im- 
possible. 

But there came to John hope and help, 
as there had come also to Isaiah ; and to 
both from *' the altar.** As John looked he 
beheld the " Lion of the tribe of Judah,** but 
in the form of a " Lamb as it had been 
slain,** take the book from the right hand 
of God and proceed to break the seals. 

Now, if a seal is the emblem of ownership 
it follows that the authorized and permitted 
loosing of a seal must mean the transfer- 
ence, or delegation, of proprietorship. And 
this is the meaning here. There is an en- 
dowment — donation, rather — of authority, 
and the change in possession is published. 
That which belonged to and had been 
under the rule of the Father is consigned 

44 



Fundamental Principles 

to and becomes the possession of the 
Son. And the change is not simply one of 
sovereigns, but of the ground principle of 
sovereignty; not only of rulers, but of 
methods of rule. The song of the ' ' elders '' 
and ''living creatures'' is now, not ''Thou 
didst create,'' but " Thou hast redeemed us 
to God by thy blood." There is presented 
to us, in fact, a picture of the mediatorial 
sovereignty of the Son of God. We see the 
inauguration of the kingdom of Christ, the 
fundamental principle of which is, ' ' Ye are 
not your own ;" for " ye are bought with a 
price: therefore glorify God." It was 
written in the Psalms, "The Lord hath 
said unto me. Thou art my Son ; this day 
have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I 
shall give thee the heathen for thine inherit- 
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
for thy possession." John was looking 
upon the fulfillment of that decree. 

Of this mediatorial kingdom of Christ, thus 
presented to us in symbol, so much is said in 
the Bible that only a few texts need to be re- 
ferred to out of the many which might be 
cited. Our Lord himself said of it that the 
Father " hath committed all judgment unto 

the Son" (John v, 22). And again, "All 

45 



Revelation of Saint John 

things are delivered unto me of my Father'' 
(Matt, xi, 27). And still again, '' All power 
is given tmto me in heaven and in earth '' 
(Matt, xxviii, 18). So in Heb. ii, 8, it is re- 
corded, '' Thou hast put all things in sub- 
jection under his feet.*' And Paul has writ- 
ten, '' Then cometh the end, when he shall 
have delivered up the kingdom to God, even 
the Father ; when he shall have put down 
all rule and all authority and power. For 
he must reign, till he hath put all enemies 
under his feef (i Cor. xv, 24, 25). 

2. Tke Opening of the Seals. — In the exer- 
cise of his sovereignty the mediating and 
atoning Lamb assumes the authority com- 
mitted to him, and the history of redemp- 
tion begins. We approach the heart of this 
wonderful book, and its great purpose be- 
gins to reveal itself. But the unfolding of 
that history has been so different from the 
conception of it that was possible even to an 
apostle that ''blindness in parf would 
happen to us all if we had not the revela- 
tion of God's plans made known to us in 
order to check despondency and animate to 
labor. 

John was one of those to whom the Mas- 
ter had said, ''Behold, I send you forth." 

46 



Fundamental Principles 

He had heard and has recorded the prayer 
of the great High Priest, ''As thou hast 
sent me into the world, even so have I also 
sent them into the world." He had received 
the great commission, '' Go ye therefore, 
and teach all nations." He had been taught 
that Christians were to be ' ' the salt of the 
earth" and ''the light of the world" and 
were to " occupy " until Christ comes again. 
What expectation more reasonable could he 
entertain than that redemption, proceeding 
from the heart of the Father, consummated 
in the sacrifice of the Son, and applied by the 
ever-abiding Spirit, would move forward 
without let or hindrance from its commence- 
ment to its glorious realization ? And this 
is implied in the vision of the opening of the 
first seal : ' ' Behold a white horse : and he 
that sat on him had a bow ; and a crown was 
given unto him : and he went forth conquer- 
ing, and to conquer." The first stroke of 
God's providence always drives the kingdom 
well forward. It is the subsequent ones that 
try men*s faith. 

When the promise of the seed which 
should bruise the serpent's head was given 
to Eve, and, following that, a son was born 
to her, was it not natural that, in the fullness 

47 



Revelation of Saint John 

of her faith, she should exclaim, '' I have 
gotten a man from the Lord? '' 

When Almighty God, who had just beaten 
down Pharaoh and Amalek and written the 
law with his own fingers, said to Moses, ''As 
truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled 
with the glory of the Lord,'' could the 
prophet have any doubt that the ark of the 
covenant would move triumphantly onward 
until it came to perfect rest in Canaan ? 

There is much to show that the apostles 
of Christ anticipated the speedy conquest of 
the world by his kingdom. The conversion 
of thousands at Pentecost, the multitude of 
accessions which followed, the obedience of 
a great company of priests, the appearance 
of miracles all conspired to foster this ex- 
pectation. The morning hour of every ref- 
ormation is brignt and golden. It is later 
on that clouds gather and the skies darken. 
Painful realities soon shake men out of such 
sunny dreams, and banish such fond illusions 
as did the murder of Abel, the lusting after 
the fleshpots of Egypt, the imprisonment of 
Peter, the defection of Ananias, the martyr- 
dom of Stephen and James. And as the 
pendulum of hope swings so easily to the 
extreme of despair, and every little Ai seems 

48 



Fundamental Principles 

to our alarmed imagination a walled Jericho, 
nothing can be conceived more helpful to 
faith and courage than to learn that such 
things must needs be, and to be comforted 
at the same time with the assurance that, 
though in the world we shall have tribula- 
tion, yet Christ has overcome the world and 
we must not lose heart. 

This is the purpose for which the visions 
accompanying the opening of the seals were 
given to John. The second seal signifies 
war; the third, famine; the fourth, pesti- 
lence ; the fifth, martyrdom ; the sixth, 
revolutions that seem to '' shake the heav- 
ens, and the earth, and the sea, and the 
dry land/' These are strange instru- 
ments to do God's will, unlookod-for mes- 
sengers to perform his bidding. But not 
only all things, but all events as well, are 
under the sovereignty of Christ; and in 
spite of these obstacles, and perhaps by 
means of them, his kingdom moves forward. 
And when the seventh and last seal shall be 
broken, when every messenger shall have 
been delegated, when the last needed en- 
couragement shall have been given and the 
last enemy destroyed, then will come the 
unbroken and eternal Sabbath of rest. 

4 49 



Revelation of Saint John 

3 . The Sealed Elect. — The third part of this 
section comprises two visions : first, of the 
''hundred and forty and four thousand," 
out of the twelve tribes of Israel, sealed in 
their foreheads; and, then, of a great 
multitude out of all nations and peoples, 
clothed in white robes and bearing palms 
in their hands. The purpose of these vi- 
sions is to show that God*s ownership ex- 
tends, not only to things and events, but to 
persons as well. ' ' The Lord knoweth 
them that are his.'' 

There need not be any hesitation in in- 
terpreting these visions as referring to Jew- 
ish and Gentile Christians respectively. 
The same distinction between the two is 
made in chap, xiv, i-6, where the hundred 
and forty-four thousand who stand on Mount 
Zion singing a song which no others could 
learn, namely, the song of Moses and the 
Lamb, are marked off from those in every 
nation and people to whom the angel flies 
with the everlasting Gospel. 

It is not meant, surely, that the number 
one hundred and forty-four thousand is to 
be taken in an absolutely literal sense. The 
definite number in all probability stands for 
a great multitude. How large the number 

50 



Fundamental Principles 

of believing Israelites was in the days of 
the apostle we have no means of determin- 
ing. That it was large may be fairly in- 
ferred from Acts xxi, 20. And in the 
great day of accounts the number may be 
seen to be beyond our largest calculation o 

Still less are we authorized to impute this 
separation of Jew from Gentile to any na- 
tional exclusiveness on the part of John. 
No apostle of the circumcision was any more 
emphatic than was Paul, the apostle of the 
Gentiles, in asserting that the order of sal- 
vation is, first, the Jew, then, the Gentile, 
and that ''God hath not cast away his 
people which he foreknew,*' although 
''blindness in partis happened to Israel, 
until the fullness of the Gentiles be come 
in." And what part the Jew may yet play 
in bringing about that fullness no man is 
able to predict. 

Moreover, there is no inferiority implied 
in the privileges and graces which the 
great multitude enjoys as compared with 
the sealed elect. They are kings and 
priests unto God; they are clothed with 
the robes of victory and joy. And the 
images by which their nearness to Christ 
and their participation in the fullest meas- 

51 



Revelation of Saint John 

ure of nourishment, safety, and felicity are 
expressed are not elsewhere exceeded in the 
Revelation . The description of their triumph 
seems to anticipate the consummation of the 
ideal kingdom of Christ, with which the clos- 
ing chapters of the Apocalypse are replete. 

52 



PARTm 

Zbc /IDeans bs wbicb tbe 1R(nfl&om of 
Cbtt0t is HDvanceb 



Means by which Advanced 



PART III 

The Means by which the Kingdom of Christ 
is Advanced — Emblem of the Trumpet 

The section of the Revelation which be- 
gins with chap, viii, 2, and closes with chap, 
xi, is characterized by the symbol of the 
trumpet. In the interpretation of this sym- 
bol the key to the understanding of the 
section must be found. It must not be in- 
ferred, because the vision of the trumpets 
follows that of the seals, that it designates 
events subsequent to the latter. The seals 
themselves, as we have seen, are not in- 
tended to be predictions of historical events, 
but strictly emblems of truths or principles ; 
and the trumpets must be in like manner 
regarded. Succession, coincidence, or any 
other relation of time has no necessary con- 
nection with them. They represent varying 
phases of the kingdom of Christ, and their 
relation thereto is the only one that need be 
regarded. 

The trumpet was a familiar instrument in 
the ritual of Judaism, having a well-knowm 
and prescribed use, and is frequently re- 
ferred to in the Scriptures. The mention 

55 



Revelation of Saint John 

of the word would readily suggest to the 
mind of a Jew its symbolic import, and the 
writer of the Apocalypse doubtless em- 
ployed it in this sense. 

The trumpet was used as a means of sum- 
mons. When an assembly w^as to be gath- 
ered, when an alarm was to be given, when 
a message was to be communicated, it was by 
the trumpet that attention was arrested and 
a hearing enforced. It signified that tidings 
were to be delivered to which it behooved 
men to listen. It increased the range of the 
unassisted human voice, with the difference 
that, while the intensifying of the sound 
through the use of the instrument carried it 
over larger spaces, there was a loss of that 
delicacy, flexibility, and capacity to convey 
emotions which belong to the unaided human 
organs of speech. 

It was by the trumpet, sounding long and 
loud, that Jehovah announced his presence 
at Sinai to Moses and the awe-stricken 
people, and bade them prepare to receive his 
law. It was by the blowing of trumpets 
that the approach of the jubilee year was 
announced — that very striking type of the 
redemption purchased by Christ. When the 
Israelites were marching around Jericho 

56 



Means by which Advanced 

*' seven priests bearing seven trumpets of 
rams' horns" went before the ark of the 
Lord; and on the seventh day, when, ''at 
the seventh time,'' the priests blew with the 
trumpets, the walls fell. And the prophet 
Joel says, '' Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanc- 
tify a fast, call a solemn assembly : gather 
the people." So familiarly has this symbol- 
ism passed over into the Christian Church 
that the preaching of salvation is very com- 
monly spoken of as the blowing of the Gos- 
pel trumpet. 

If the seals emblematize the truth that 
all things belong of right to Christ as Me- 
diator, the question very naturally follows, 
How is this de jure ownership to be made a 
de facto one, and what instruments are put 
into the hands of the Church to enable it to 
establish the kingdom of Christ on earth? 
The vision of the trumpets is designed to 
be the answer to this question. 

The trumpets, then, signify the instru- 
mentalities by which men are called to the 
kingdom of Christ, or the measures which 
the divine Being employs to advance that 
kingdom. Their number, seven, indicates 
that these measures are complete and com- 
prehensive, including every available re- 

57 



Revelation of Saint John 

source and employing all possible methods 
of approach to man. God avails himself of 
every legitimate device to constrain a sin- 
ful world to accept the proffer of salvation 
ere he passes from chastisement and correc- 
tion to retributive and final judgment. Thus 
those who reject the offer will be found 
without excuse, and the despisers of the 
wedding garment will be stricken speech- 
less in the day of accounts. 

The sounding of the trumpets, it will be 
noticed, is preceded by the '' prayers of the 
saints;'' for that ''the effectual fervent 
prayer of a righteous man availeth much '' 
with God is one of the fundamental facts of 
the kingdom (Psalm xviii, 6-17). And the 
token of the hearing of the prayers is seen 
in the '* voices, and thunderings, and light- 
nings, and an earthquake '' that followed 
when the seven angels with the trumpets 
prepared to sound. The vision doubtless 
recalled to John's mind the remembrance 
of that day when, as the disciples prayed, 
' ' the place was shaken where they were 
assembled together; " God revealing him- 
self in the new dispensation as he had done 
at Sinai when about to communicate his 
law. The grandeur of the preparation sug- 

58 



Means by which Advanced 

gests the importance of the tidings to be 
communicated. 

It will be also observed that the episode 
of the ''two witnesses*' (chap, xi) falls 
within the section marked by the trumpet 
emblem. The appropriateness of this and 
the ease with which it takes its place here 
furnish no slight evidence that the explana- 
tion of the Revelation adopted in this essay 
is correct. 

There are two modes by which the divine 
Being has chosen to communicate the 
knowledge of himself and of his will. 
These are his works and his word. The 
one is that manifestation of himself in na- 
ture of which Paul speaks when he says, 
'' The invisible things of him from the cre- 
ation of the world are clearly seen, being 
understood by the things that are made, 
even his eternal power and Godhead.'' 
The other is supernatural, the revelation of 
himself as a power above nature and not 
limited by its laws. It is of this that Peter 
says, *' We have also a more sure word of 
prophecy." 

The most searching and subtle analysis 
to which knowledge and its sources have 
been subjected has resulted in this — that 

59 



Revelation of Saint John 

even in the alembic of modern doubt, after 
the most biting acids have tried their solv- 
ent power, there is left as the residuum a 
conviction that, besides this known and 
knowable universe, there exists a first cause 
or force. At the beginning and basis of all 
things a duality must be acknowledged. If 
human thought by its unaided light is in- 
competent to go beyond this, it is not allowed 
to stop short of it. ^'The momentum of 
thought/' Herbert Spencer says, '* inevita- 
bly carries us beyond conditioned existence 
to unconditioned existence.** ''The cer- 
tainty that, on the one hand, such a power 
exists, while, on the other, its nature tran- 
scends intuition and is beyond imagination, 
is the certainty toward which intelligence 
has been from the first progressing. To 
this conclusion science inevitably arrives as 
it reaches its confines.*' This power, which 
science may know only as ' ' an infinite and 
eternal energy,** is the Being whom the 
Scriptures reveal to us as the Lord God, of 
whom and through whom and to whom ''are 
all things : to whom be glory forever.** 

From this first Cause knowledge comes to 
us through two channels — ^his deeds and 
his words. The first of these is accessible 

60 



Means by which Advanced 

to all mankind; for the Gentiles, whicli 
have not the law, '* show the work of the 
law written in their hearts, their conscience 
also bearing witness/' But as that which 
is constant and habitual soon ceases to at- 
tract attention, and the orderly and uniform 
processes of nature excite less interest and 
awaken feebler curiosity than the anomalous 
and occasional, in like manner it is most 
frequently by calamities, adversities, seem- 
ing withdrawals of God's face that men are 
brought to reflection, consideration, and 
obedience. *' When thy judgments are in 
the earth, the inhabitants of the world will 
learn righteousness/' It is this truth that 
the vision of the trumpets symbolizes. It 
signifies the warnings in the field of natural 
providence which the divine Being gives 
to men, in order to show the evil and 
peril of sin and thus draw back their souls 
from the pit. The second of these channels 
of knowledge is found in the oracles of God, 
the Scriptures committed to the chosen peo- 
ple. And these are symbolized in the epi- 
sode of the ^' two witnesses," which forms a 
part of the trumpet section. 

The details of the trumpet scenes are not, 
it must be confessed, easy of interpretation. 

61 



Revelation of Saint John 

They seem to be selected from various parts 
of the Old Testament, and grouped accord- 
ing to some plan not explained to us, sug- 
gesting the thought that the interpretation 
of them is not to be found in any single 
event, but in some common truth embodied 
in many events. 

The conjunction of '' hail '* with '' fire** 
(viii, 7) is also found in Exod. ix, 24; that 
of ^^fire** with ^^ blood" (viii, 7) in Joel 
ii, 30; while all three of these elements are 
separately mentioned in many passages. 
The moving of mountains (viii, 8) is re- 
ferred to in Psalm xlvi, 2, and Isa. liv, 10; 
and a burning mountain in Jer. li, 25. 
''Wormwood'' (viii, 11) occurs in Jer. ix, 
15, and Amos v, 7. The darkening of the 
heavenly bodies (viii, 12) is found also in 
Isa. xiii, 10; Amos viii, 9; and Joel ii, 31. 
'' LocUwSts ■' (ix, 3) are mentioned in Exod. 
X, 4; Nahum iii, 17; Joel i, 4. 

But the assemblage of the events in the 
Revelation differs from any other in the 
Bible. It is more systematically arranged 
than in the series foretold by our Lord in 
Matt. xxiv. It differs from the account of 
the Egyptian plagues of Exodus in omis- 
sions, the introduction of new details, and 

62 



Means by which Advanced 

in the fact that the plagues occur in a dif- 
ferent order. The hail, for instance, which 
is the seventh Egyptian plague, is the first 
of the plagues in the Revelation. All this 
may be explained by the fact that the 
plagues of Egypt were confined to that 
country and were adapted to its local cli- 
matic conditions, while the plagues of the 
Revelation have for their field the world it- 
self, and were intentionally diversified in 
being fitted to this larger sphere. 

That a close connection exists between 
man and his dwelling place, the earth, is a 
truth in which both science and the Scrip- 
tures cordially concur ; the dispute, if an}^ 
between them is not as to the fact, but its 
cause. The doctrine of evolution, which 
receives such wide acceptance, rests upon 
this connection as a fundamental axiom ; 
and the Scriptures confirm the fact in the 
accounts of the creation and the fall. The 
difference between science and the Scrip- 
tures is, that what evolution attributes to 
the operation of natural law the Bible ex- 
plains by the working of a moral power. 
As for man's sake the ground was cursed 
and all nature made to suffer by reason of 
his rebellion, so do they bear constant wit- 

63 



Revelation of Saint John 

ness to his advance or degeneration in right- 
eousness. As purity is in general promo- 
tive of prosperity, so does sin produce dis- 
aster. * * As the moral life of the soul 
expresses itself in the physical life of the 
body for the latter's health or corruption, so 
the conduct of the human race affects the 
physical life of the universe to its farthest 
limit in space. The Old Testament is not 
contented with a general statement of this 
great principle, but pursues it to all sorts of 
particular and private applications. The 
curses of the Lord fell, not only on the sin- 
ner, but on his dwelling, his property, and 
even on the bit of ground he occupied. 
The doctrine of the Old Testament is that 
man's sin has rendered necessary the de- 
struction of his material circumstances, and 
that the divine judgment includes a broken 
and rifled universe.'' ^ 

And these calamities, w^hether brought 
about directly by the divine Governor, or 
through the operation of general laws, which 
is but another mode of his action, are so many 
trumpet calls from God warning men to re- 
trace their erring steps and submit to his 

'^Isaiah, vol. i. chap. 'xxxviii, pp. 419, fif., in the Exposi 
tors Bible, New York, A. C. Armstrong & Co. 

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Means by which Advanced 

kingdom. '' It was plague and fire," Leigh 
Hunt says, ' ' that first taught the London- 
ers to build their city better.'* And the 
divine Being may make use of like means 
to forward his moral government. 

I . Natural Providences. — In the first trum- 
pet scene the blow falls upon the earth itself. 
Its productive resources wxre severely di- 
minished through the destructive agencies 
of nature, intensified, it may be, by the 
horrors of w^ar. The hail and the fire were 
mingled wnth blood. And, since food is 
essential to life, ''the king himself being 
served by the field," such a disaster must 
sorely oppress mankind. The apostle had 
himself v/itnessed at least one widely-ex- 
tended famine, and had noted how the ex- 
hibition of Christian benevolence had been 
made the means of promoting the kingdom 
of Christ (Acts xi, 28-30). 

The second trumpet scene deals with disas- 
ters affecting ''the sea," the great highway 
of commerce, and disturbing the exchanges 
of the products of labor among men. More 
than once in the history of the world social 
revolutions have been the plowshare turn- 
ing up the soil, that seeds of religious refor- 
mation might the better grow. 

6 65 



Revelation of Saint John 

In the third trumpet scene it is the sources 
of water supply that are affected. A star, 
falling from heaven, turns them to worm- 
wood, which in the Old Testament is used 
as a symbol of bitterness and poisoning. 
It is in the contamination of these sources 
that epidemics and pestilences usually find 
their commencement, and a merciful Provi- 
dence generally spares them until other and 
milder warnings have been tried. 

In the fourth trumpet scene the heavenly 
bodies are involved, carrying out the idea, 
so frequently expressed in the Bible, of the 
sympathy which the whole creation seems 
to feel with the great events transacted on 
earth. The universe is so bound together 
that whatever touches one part of the great 
Governor's empire ultimately affects every 
other (Exod. x, 21-24; Isa. xiii, 9-11 ; Joel 
ii, 31 ; Matt, xxiv, 29; xxvii, 45). Yet the 
images in this scene may be figurative em- 
blems of the ruling powers of earthly king- 
doms, and the vision may be interpreted as 
synonymous with the predictions of Hag. ii, 
6-9, and Heb. xii, 26-29, in which the 
shaking of heaven and earth is made to 
precede the coming of the kingdom of 
Christ. 

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The fifth trumpet scene is undoubtedly 
the most diflficult of all to interpret and re- 
quires more elaborate treatment. In striv- 
ing to explain its obscurities the only safe 
and satisfactory method is to search for 
what may be regarded as certain and plain 
in the vision, and from this as a starting 
point to essay the more difficult. 

Two things seem to stand out prominently 
and comparatively clearly in the scene. 
Assuming the star which fell from heaven, 
to whom was given the key of the bottomless 
pit, and who is closely connected with the 
angel of the pit named Abaddon or Apol- 
lyon — that is, destroyer — to be a repre- 
sentation of Satan, then for the first time 
this archenemy of God and man is in- 
troduced personally upon the stage. In 
whatever the fifth trumpet signifies he di- 
rectly or indirectly has a preeminent share. 
Then, again, the mention of locusts points 
us to the prophecy of Joel, where the de- 
stinictive ravages of this scourge are such a 
conspicuous figure. If we can reach a satis- 
factory solution of JoeVs prophecy we may 
reasonably expect an understanding of this 
prophecy of the Revelation. 

In the great prophecy of Joel, brief in 

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Revelation of Saint John 

extent, but comprehensive in import, the 
background upon which the earnest preacher 
of God paints his vivid pictures is the alarm- 
ing condition of spiritual declension and 
apathy into which the people had fallen, 
accompanied with fearful neglect of the 
service of God and its ordinances. To 
awaken the people out of this deadly state 
he predicts the approach of an awful 
scourge, the ravages of which would be 
felt in a resultant condition of extraordi- 
nary impoverishment and penury. Pov- 
erty of spirit must precede entrance into 
the riches of the kingdom of heaven. 
And so the prophet is commissioned to 
promise that, after repentance and re- 
newal of consecration, there shall be a 
rich and plentiful effusion of the Holy 
Spirit; and he assures the penitent that 
''whosoever shall call on the name of the 
Lord shall be delivered" and shall escape 
the impending destruction. 

Nothing is more probable, therefore, than 
that the writer of the Revelation meant to 
warn the Church of Christ against a decline 
in faith or relaxation in zeal. He assured 
it that such a lapse would be followed by 
the intrusion into its field of some danger- 

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Means by which Advanced 

Otis enemy. What the character of this 
enemy should be is indicated by two things. 
It wall be noticed that, if John deviates from 
the description of the locusts given by Joel, 
it is in the direction of bringing humanity 
more into the picture. The locusts spoken 
of in this fifth trumpet scene are to have 
crowns like gold upon their heads; their 
faces are to be as the faces of men ; their 
hair to be as the hair of w^omen ; they are 
to hurt, not as real locusts do, the earth 
and its products, but men ; their sting, im- 
like that of other locusts, is to be as the 
sting of scorpions ; and their work will be, 
not the destruction of human life, but the 
causing of such misery as to make human 
life unhappy and undesirable. They are 
to be under the direction of Satan, whose 
field of operations in the warfare he wages 
against the kingdom of Christ is, not the 
earth, but the world of human beings. 

The truth, then, which seems to be indi- 
cated in this obscure vision is, that when- 
ever a Christian man or Church declines 
into lukewarmness or apathy there may be 
expected to follow an incursion and inva- 
sion by other and lower forms of reli- 
gious life and thought. Wherever iniquity 

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Revelation of Saint John 

abounds and the ''love of many" waxes 
cold there is sure to be an inroad of heresy, 
false doctrine, more or less heterodoxy 
of creed. The human heart, like nature, 
abhors a vacuum. Where true godliness 
wanes false religions rush in to fill the 
void ; and the intensity of zeal which false 
religions awaken measures the declension 
that has befallen true faith. The evil spirit 
that comes back to a home from which he 
has been once expelled, and finds it empty, 
swept, and garnished, takes to himself 
seven other spirits more wicked than him- 
self, ' ' and the last state of that man is 
worse than the first." The temperature of 
religion when it falls to lower levels never 
does so equably. The nobler and more 
ideal parts suffer most severely, and, like 
the shriveled idol of the Philistines, at last 
'' only the stump of Dagon is left to him." 
There can be no question that the advo- 
cates of the historical interpretation of the 
Revelation have a very strong support for 
their hypothesis in the application of this 
part of it to the rise and growth, of Moham- 
medanism. It is not to be denied that many 
of the essential characteristics of that false 
religion are quite accurately delineated in 

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Means by which Advanced 

this picture. The rise and rapid extension 
of Mohammedanism were possible only 
because of the dead, formal, and corrupt 
condition of the Christendom which it 
encountered. Its prophet and founder 
preached a faith which was purer than that 
of many a so-called Christian bishop ; and 
it achieves its triumphs now only in those 
regions where Christianity has degenerated 
into spiritual barrenness and puerile cere- 
monialism. But in this, as in so many in- 
stances, the historical interpretation errs, 
not through incorrectness, so much as 
through incompleteness. In claiming any 
one historical event as the fulfillment of 
prophecy it impoverishes inspiration by con- 
fining that fulfillment to a single fact. 
Mohammedanism is but one illustration of 
a profounder truth. The Revelation of 
John is meant for all ages. It is constantly 
finding new illustrations and applications. 
In setting before us the causes of decline as 
well as of growth, the Revelation teaches 
us to be looking for these causes at all 
times, that we may avert the decline or for- 
ward the growth ; and thus it is furnishing 
new examples of its divine truth and new 

evidences of its divine origin, without ex- 

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Revelation of Saint John 

hausting its force in any single example or 
any single evidence. 

The sixtli trumpet sounds, and the vision 
v^hich is presented to us is one of increasing 
danger and darkness. Warnings unheeded 
give way to alarms still more threatening. 
The noonday bell of invitation deepens into 
the curfew toll of departing day. The ap- 
proach, of an immense and imposing array 
of horsemen armed for battle strikes deeper 
terror than did the invasion of the locusts 
and indicates judgments more formidable. 
The power of Satan to harm is overmaster- 
ing mercy's efforts to save, and the restric- 
tions which had been laid upon his authority 
are being relaxed. We are told now that 
' ' by these three was the third part of men 
killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and 
by the brimstone." As there is suggested a 
spiritual condition which has gone beyond 
mere declension and apathy to deeper states 
of alienation from God, so the perils threat- 
ened end, not with a destruction of the hap- 
piness of life, but in death itself. 

It must be noticed that the region from 
which the new and alarming scourge pro- 
ceeds is the ''great river Euphrates.*' To 
understand this we must place ourselves at 

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the standpoint of the apostle. The river 
Euphrates was to Palestine what the Dan- 
ube and the Rhine were to the Roman 
empire — the line of demarcation between 
civilization and barbarism. The East vras 
the quarter from which the earlier prophets 
always apprehended danger. It v/as in the 
Euphrates that Jeremiah was bidden to cast 
the book with the stone tied to it (Jer. li, 
63). On the hither side of the great river 
lay the kingdoms with which Israel had 
mainly had intercourse. On the north of 
Palestine was Syria, on the south, Egypt; 
on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris 
or near by were Assyria and Babylon. The 
peoples of these kingdoms were, indeed, 
nations whose God was not the Lord ; yet 
between them and Israel a modus viveiidi had 
to some degree been established, and some 
common rules of international intercourse 
were recognized. But on the farther side 
was the land of barbarians among whom 
the arts of civilization were unknown, who 
acknowledged no code of comity or obliga- 
tion with which the chosen people were 
familiar, whose ways and modes of warfare 
were impenetrable and strange, and from 
whom all possible evils might be expected. 



Revelation of Saint John 

There is, it must be sadly confessed, in 
all human beings a latent germ of barbar- 
ism, a survival of the carnal or animal na- 
ture. Suppressed, indeed, it may be by 
culture, education, or other moral or secu- 
lar forces, and its existence hardly surmised, 
yet it only awaits fostering conditions to 
manifest its presence and reassert its power. 
Without divine grace no Christian is free 
from liability to an outburst of the carnal 
mind which may destroy the spiritual life of 
the soul. Nor does any grade of civilization 
exempt nations from the possibility of a re- 
version to barbarism, if the excitements to 
it are allowed to exist or precautions against 
its inroads are neglected. Bishop Butler 
expressed the opinion that whole communi- 
ties, like individuals, might become insane. 
Perhaps it is nearer the truth to explain the 
sudden frenzies to which men and nations 
have sometimes given way as an uncon- 
trolled irruption of the barbarous element 
within. Farther on, in the twentieth chap- 
ter of the Revelation, we shall find this 
tendency toward barbarism more particu- 
larly referred to by John, and the appre- 
ciation of it will help us there to solve one 
of the most perplexing problems of the book. 



Means by which Advanced 

Ethnology either ignores this liability to 
revert to barbarism or denies it, and by so 
doing impairs the value of those hypoth- 
eses as to the primitive condition of the 
race which it seeks to substitute for the 
Bible story. It is not always easy to de- 
termine whether any particular stage of 
barbarism marks a step upward in the 
advance of a growing people or a decline 
toward animalism from a superior state; 
yet the correctness of our inferences de- 
pends upon an accurate diagnosis of this 
question. 

But human experience is constantly fur- 
nishing illustrations confirming the utter- 
ances of the word of God as to the possibility 
of a fall from high grades of cultivation to 
the depths of savager}^ If the counsels of 
God are unheeded and the convictions of 
the Holy Spirit are resisted nothing can 
follow but a descent into lower grades, until 
the savage forces that underlie our nature 
assert supremacy and overleap the weak 
barriers which reason and judgment set up 
to stay them. 

Something like this seems to be the 
warning meant to be conveyed through 
the sixth trumpet. A striking commen- 

15 



Revelation of Saint John 

tary upon this was given but a few centu- 
ries after John's death, when the hordes of 
barbarians that had been only waiting op- 
portunity swept with irresistible fury over 
the crumbling walls of the corrupt and 
decadent Roman Empire, and imposed upon 
the Christian Church the task of saving 
civilization itself from destruction. We 
may not even now relax our watchfulness 
or put off the armor of our faith, lest this 
may involve a reversion of mankind to bar- 
baric naturalism. And a return to barbar- 
ism is the lowest condition to which human 
nature can fall. From such a state recovery 
is well-nigh hopeless and repentance an ex- 
treme improbability, for the resources of 
mercy will have been almost exhausted, and 
beyond lies only doom. 

It should be noticed that the Revelation 
speaks of three woes. The first one pre- 
dicted is described under the fifth trumpet. 
The second one is declared by the sixth 
trumpet. The third one is not uncovered 
at all. It lies in that future world from 
which the curtain is not lifted and into 
which even the light of revelation feebly 
penetrates. Whoever has rejected all the 
warnings of love and descended the moral 

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Means by which Advanced 

scale until he has reverted to the state of 
sensualism is but a step from the second 
death. '' He that soweth to his flesh shall 
of the flesh reap corruption." 

2. Tke Two Witnesses^ or, the Supernatural 
Scriptures, — The episode of the ''two wit- 
nesses/' to which we are now brought, is 
one that has sorely tried expositors. Though 
many and various solutions of it have been 
attempted, Alford, in his commentary upon 
the passage, says, "- I will further remark, 
and the reader will find this abundantly 
borne out by research into histories of 
Apocalyptic exegesis, that no solution at 
all approaching to a satisfactory one has 
ever yet been given ... of this portion of 
the prophecy.*' If it shall be found, there- 
fore, that the principles which have hitherto 
guided us enable us to penetrate to the core 
of this mystery, and evolve a meaning in- 
telligible and reasonable, and which, while 
interpreting all the details without distor- 
tion or suppression , is in harmony at the 
same time with the Scriptures in general 
and with the purpose for which they have 
been revealed, then we may indulge the 
hope that these principles are correct and 

may advance with some confidence to the 

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Revelation of Saint John 

problems that still lie before us. Though 
long tunnels are yet to be threaded, with 
only brief intervals between them of open 
air, we shall in time, perhaps, reach the 
light of day and rest in the sunshine of dis- 
covered truth. 

It has been already said that through the 
vast space that intervenes between the di- 
vine Being and man two great lines of 
communication stretch. These are his 
works and his word. It is this truth which 
the trumpets symbolize, and we have not 
yet gotten beyond the section of the Reve- 
lation in which this emblem of the trumpets 
is the ruling one. Six of the trumpets have 
sounded. Whatever can be done by natu- 
ral providences to arouse men to spiritual 
thought and action has been sounded by 
them. Nature has no other voices with 
which to speak to mankind. But the re- 
sources of Omnipotence are not exhausted. 
God has yet other means of approach to his 
creatures. And if, therefore, because of 
heedlessness or obduracy or preoccupation 
of mind or absorption in temporal things, 
one of these lines of light from God's mercy 
falls with too light a touch to arrest men's 
attention or awaken them to danger or win 

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Means by which Advanced 

their consent to seek God's favor, there re- 
mains another and more efficient one, 
namely, his written word ; and here is the 
place where we should expect allusion to it. 

The two witnesses, then, may be reason- 
ably interpreted as signifying the law and 
the prophets, the titles under which the Old 
Testament Scriptures received by John as 
divinely inspired were almost universally 
designated. Should these fail of their pur- 
pose, even the divine Being, v/e may rever- 
ently say, had no other way of reaching 
man. It is our Lord himself who says,'* If 
they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
neither will they be persuaded though one 
rose from the dead." When the great and 
strong wind rending the m^ountains, and 
after this the earthquake, and after this the 
fire, have failed, it is possible that the still 
small voice will arouse to faith and hope and 
duty. Should it not do so, then the case is 
hopeless. 

In order to verifv the solution which is 
here proposed of the episode of the two wit- 
nesses, a careful examination will be made 
of the facts as detailed in the text. 

The introduction of the two witncwsses, 
however, is preceded b}^ two visions by way 

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Revelation of Saint John 

of prelude. This, we shall find, is what we 
might reasonably expect. If the witnesses 
are, indeed, symbols of the sacred Scrip- 
tures, God's direct revelation of his will and 
character to men, it is proper that the scope 
and purpose of all revelation shall be plainly 
laid down, that we may know how far the 
revealed word of God is to be regarded as 
evidence, and also that some criteria shall 
be given by which we shall be able to dis- 
cern what the inspired writings are, and how 
to differentiate them from human produc- 
tions. In other words, we have here from 
the pen of John his own views of biblical 
criticism, and it would have been well if 
they had been more carefully heeded in the 
discussions of inspiration recently so rife. 

In the first of these two visions a '' mighty 
angel'' is seen to '' come down from heaven, 
clothed with a cloud " and with ''a, rainbow 
upon his head." And he had in his hand 
a little book open. But, when '^ seven thun- 
ders had uttered their voices " and John was 
*' about to write," a voice was heard from 
heaven saying, ' ' Seal up those things which 
the seven thunders uttered, and write them, 
not." This prohibition is distinctly declared 
to be only for a time. '' In the days of the 

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Means by which Advanced 

voice of the seventh angel, when he shall 
begin to sound, the mystery of God should 
be finished, as he hath declared unto his 
servants the prophets/' 

If the interpretation put upon the two 
witnesses is correct, and if they symbolize 
the Scriptures, then the purpose of this pre- 
lude is to indicate what we are to look for 
in them. It is not the design of the Bible 
to communicate all possible truth, but only 
such measure of it as has reference to the 
kingdom of Christ. Although the things 
which are revealed belong to us and to our 
children, there are still secret things which 
belong to the Lord our God. He has com- 
municated much, but he has withheld much, 
and doubtless the reasons for the revelation 
and the reserve are equally wise. There 
are truths which man's own powers enable 
him to discover. There are other truths 
beyond his ability to comprehend even 
should they be revealed. These are excluded 
from the Scriptures as being aside from their 
purpose. It is only ''when that which is 
perfect is come," and ''that which is in part 
shall be done awa}^," that we shall know as 
we are known. Very much that we know 
not now we shall know hereafter. But the 

6 81 



Revelation of Saint John 

Bible has specific reference to the kingdom 
of Christ and reveals only what has relation 
to that kingdom. * ' The testimony of Jesus ** 
is the spirit of all prophecy. That which 
lies within the capacity of man to discover 
is left to the wisdom and patience of men. 
That which pertains to the future life, and 
would simply satisfy curiosity to know, is 
reserved to the time when we shall have 
laid aside mortality. The Scriptures reveal 
to us only w^hat it is needful for us to know 
that we may enter and enjoy and forward 
the kingom of Christ. Paul was not allowed 
to utter the words he had heard in his 
heavenly ecstasy, and John is likewise pro- 
hibited from uttering things which belong 
solely to the divine Being and await his 
pleasure to publish. It was sufficient for 
him to be told that, however bitter and un- 
palatable his message might be, he must still 
' ' prophesy before many peoples, and na- 
tions, and tongues, and kings.'* 

The second prelude also has reference 
to the limitations within which all revela- 
tion is confined. ''There was given me a 
reed like unto a rod : and the angel stood, 
saying, Rise, and measure the temple of 
God, and the altar, and them that worship 

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Means by v/hich Advanced 

therein. But the court which is without 
the temple leave out, and measure it not ; 
for it is given unto the Gentiles : and the 
holy city shall they tread under foot forty 
and two months." 

There are two elements in this which 
furnish guides to its ii^terpretation. One 
is the distinction so emphatically made 
between the temple itself, which, as we 
know, was reserved exclusively for Israel- 
ites, and the outer courts, which were given 
to the Gentiles. The other is the use of 
the symbolical number forty-two. 

Now is it not a reasonable thing that the 
apostle, when about to point us to the law 
and the prophets as God's two witnesses, 
shall put a broad distinction between them 
and all mere human productions? The 
temple itself is the field within which they 
fulfill their office, and those only who speak 
from it are God's accredited messengers. If 
the Scriptures are the standard by which 
truth concerning the kingdom of Christ is 
to be tested, if they have authority to bind 
the consciences of mien, there must be some 
criterion by which they shall be judged. 
And this is the criterion — '' Salvation is of 
the Jews." God's messengers and wit- 

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Revelation of Saint John 

nesses sprang from them. And Paul con- 
firms this declaration when he says that the 
chief advantage which the Jews had was 
that ' ' unto them were committed the oracles 
of God/' The highest creations of human 
genius fall short of the special inspiration 
which belonged to the prophets and patri- 
archs and apostles of Israel. The outer 
courts, indeed, were given to the Gentiles. 
Theirs was the world of art, of science, of 
commerce, of literature, of politics, of 
earthly dominion ; but the temple and the 
altar belonged to the chosen race. Brilliant 
stars brightened the darkness of the Gentile 
sky, but the sun of spiritual truth shone 
only to the teachers whom God called out 
of Israel ; and Homer and ^schylus, and 
muse and sibyl, must '' pale their ineffectual 
fires '' in the presence of his seers and 
anointed ones. And this is confirmed by 
the use of the symbolical number forty-two. 
This number, as we have seen in the Intro- 
duction, typifies a period which has definite 
limits and fulfills a specific purpose. It 
may designate Judaism proper or Gentilism 
proper. And the meaning here is that now, 
and throughout this present cycle of time, 
the kingdom of God has been taken from 

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Means by which Advanced 

the Jew and given to a nation bringing 
forth the fruits of the kingdom. Neither 
the temple, nor the altar, nor the inspired 
Scriptures belong now exclusively to the 
Jew. The chosen race has forfeited its pre- 
rogative of exclusiveness, and the foot of the 
Gentile treads the inner as well as outer 
court. The Bible belongs to lis as well as 
to Israel. 

With these important and interesting 
preludes explained, and the reason of their 
introduction in this place accounted for, we 
are prepared to investigate the vision of 
the two witnesses. 

It has already been said, but the impor- 
tance of the matter requires its repetition, 
that the paragraph containing the vision of 
the witnesses is a part of the section of the 
Revelation of which the trumpet is the rul- 
ing symbol ; for it is not until the close of 
this paragraph that the seventh trumpet 
sounds. It seems, therefore, plausible that 
what is symbolized by the witnesses has 
some continuous connection with that which 
is designated by the trumpets. And, inas- 
much as the trumpets are emblems of the 
instrumentalities which the divine Being 
employs to call men to repentance, obedi- 

85 



Revelation of Saint John 

ence, and the service of himself, the wit- 
nesses are an emblem of some such instru- 
mentality, having the same end in view, 
but operating in a different mode. The six 
trumpets which have already sounded repre- 
sent what the divine Being does by way of 
natural providence, approaching men by 
calamities, distresses, the observed connec- 
tion between impiety and moral, as well as 
intellectual, decadence, and such like means. 
But nature in any and all of its modes of 
manifestation does not comprise all the 
modes of communication between God and 
man. Nor is the testimony which it bears 
to God the highest testimony. The same 
Being who ' ' f ormeth the mountains, and 
createth the wind," who ''maketh the 
morning darkness, and treadeth upon the 
high places of the earth," also ''declareth 
unto man what is his thought." ''The 
heavens, " indeed, ' 'declare the glory of God ; 
and the firmament showeth his handiwork." 
But the law of God does more. It convert- 
eth the soul. Nature's witness is given by 
dumb signs or inarticulate sounds. It has 
no speech nor language. Its worshipers 
may cry aloud to their Baal from morning 
until the time of the evening sacrifice, but 

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Means by which Advanced 

there is none to hear, nor any God that re- 
gards. It is to and through the human 
spirit that the divine Spirit must communi- 
cate his deepest truths ; nor has he done all 
that may be done until he has given to men 
his word. ''The grass withereth, the 
flower fadeth ; but the word of our God 
shall stand forever.'* 

The two witnesses, human and intelli- 
gent, aptly and appropriately represent this 
higher mode of communication which God 
employs to impress and teach men. By 
them we are to understand the law and the 
prophets, the two component parts of the 
Old Testament Scriptures, which at the date 
of the Apocalypse constituted the only ca- 
nonical Scriptures known. In the para- 
graph which follows there is an intimation 
of the New Testament ; but as 3^et it was 
not in existence as a collected code. The 
Bible which Christ and his apostles knew 
was the Jewish Bible. 

The proof of this somewhat novel inter- 
pretation of the two witnewSses, if, indeed, 
any interpretation of any part of the Apoca- 
lypse can be called novel, lies in the fact 
that it explains all the details of the vision 
which are presented to us simply, easily, 

81 



Revelation of Saint John 

and without any forced construction. It is 
essential to group together the separate de- 
tails, and then endeavor to explain them. 

The seer says of these two v/itnesses that 
they prophesy in sackcloth twelve hundred 
and sixty days, which, as has been said in 
discussing rules of interpretation, is one of 
the numbers symbolical of Judaism ; they 
are identified as corrCwSponding with the 
'' two sons of oil, that stand by the Lord of 
the whole earth,'' of whom Zechariah wrote 
(Revised Version); they have power to de- 
vour their enemies and shut heaven by the 
miracles of withholding the rain, turning 
waters to blood, and smiting the earth with 
plagues. There is a period when their * ' tes- 
timony'' is finished. When that period is 
reached their enemy, the beast from the 
bottomless pit, kills them, and their dead 
bodies lie exposed for three and a half days 
''in the street of the great city, which 
spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where 
also our Lord was crucified." At the end of 
this period ''the Spirit of life entered into 
them, and they stood upon their feet ; " and 
they finally " ascended up to heaven " amid 
convulsions which shake the earth and fill 
men with terror. 

88 



Means by which Advanced 

How accurately all these features of the 
paragraph find their fulfillment in the law 
and the prophets, or the Old Testament 
Scriptures, may be readily shown : 

First. It is worthy of consideration as a 
strong point that the expression, *' the law 
and the prophets " (sometimes '' Moses and 
the prophets " ), is the one almost invariably 
employed by our Lord in designating the 
older Scriptures (Matt, v, 17; vii, 12; xi, 
13; xxii, 40; Luke xvi, 31; xxiv, 27; as 
also John i, 45 ; Acts xiii, 15 ; xxviii, 23). 

Secondly, The testimony of the prophets 
and writers of the Old Testament may be 
truly said to have been given in sackcloth. 
What one of these messengers of God ever 
met with a cordial reception? Well did 
Stephen say, perhaps in the hearing of John 
himself, ' ' Which of the prophets have not 
your fathers persecuted?" ''They were 
stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, 
w^ere slain with the sword : they wandered 
about in sheepskins, and goatskins; being 
destitute, afflicted, tormented " (Heb. xi, 
37; Luke, xi, 49-5 O- 

Thirdly. The law and the prophets found 
their special embodiments and representa- 
tives in Moses (John i, 17) and Elijah (Mai. 

89 



Revelation of Saint John 

iv, 4, 5); one the uneqtialed statesmen and 
legislator, the other the most striking and, 
in many respects, the greatest of the long 
line of prophets. The miracles ascribed to 
the two witnesses were actually wrought by 
these two extraordinary and typical men. 
To Moses was given power to turn waters to 
blood and to smite the earth with plagues. 
It was at the prayer of Elijah that the 
heaven was shut so that it rained not but 
according to his word. 

Fourthly. Zechariah's vision of the *' two 
olive branches which through the two golden 
pipes empty the golden oil out of them- 
selves,'' and which are said to be '' the two 
anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the 
whole earth," finds its most appropriate and 
exact fulfillment in the Holy Scriptures, 
which testify of Jesus (John v, 39). And 
it was the representatives of the law and 
the prophets, or Moses and Elijah, who were 
chosen to stand by our Lord when he ap- 
peared in glory upon the Mount of Trans- 
figuration. 

Fifthly. The '* testimony" of the law and 
the prophets is distinctly said by our Lord 
himself to have been *^ finished " when his 
own forerunner, John the Baptist, appeared. 

90 



Means by which Advancea 

'' For all the prophets and the law prophe- 
sied until John " (Matt, xi, 13); '' The law 
and the prophets were tintil John '* (Luke 
xvi, 16). 

Sixthly. Although the Jews professedly 
acknowledged the law and the prophets to 
be of divine origin, our Lord emphatically 
charged against them that they had by their 
glosses and traditions in effect abrogated 
them ; devitalizing them and making their 
authority to be a dead letter (Matt, xv, 6 ; 
Mark vii, 13 ; Luke xi, 52). 

Seventhly, At no period did this nullifi- 
cation of the power of the Holy Scriptures 
reach such extremes as during our Lord's 
active ministry on earth. The dead bodies 
of the law and the prophets may be said, 
without exaggeration, to have lain exposed 
in the streets of Jerusalem, where our Lord 
was crucified. 

Eighthly. The bodies of the two witnesses 
are said to have lain ' ' three days and a 
half." As the period of our Lord's active 
ministry has been computed at three and a 
half years the number may refer to that. 
But as three and a half is a svmbolical num- 
ber, designating a half period, it may be 
used to designate the same here. The min- 

91 



Revelation of Saint John 

istry of our Lord was such a half period, 
which was not completed until it had been 
supplemented by the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Ninthly, After the *' three days and a 
half the Spirit of life from God '' is said to 
have *' entered into" the two witnesses, 
''and they stood upon their feet." This 
was remarkably fulfilled on the day of 
Pentecost, when, by the illumination and 
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the apostles 
were moved to draw from the law and the 
prophets those convincing arguments and 
promises and appeals which led to the con- 
version of thousands. 

Tenthly, The two witnesses after their 
resurrection are said to have '* ascended up 
to heaven " in the presence of their ene- 
mies. This finds its fulfillment in the fact 
that the Hebrew Scriptures, with the added 
life given them by the New Testament, 
have been accepted by the Christian Church, 
not as the exclusive property of the Jewish 
Church or as the archives of the Hebrew 
nation, but as the common heritage of the 
world and the canonical word of God to the 
whole human race. 

Lastly, The convulsions of nature which 
are said to have accompanied the ascent of 

92 



Means by which Advanced 

the witnesses to heaven were exactly ful- 
filled, as John could testify, in the events 
that followed Pentecost — the terror and 
alarm of Christ's enemies, the fear that 
came upon all, the shaking as by an earth- 
quake of the place where the disciples were 
assembled in prayer, and the rapid increase 
in numbers of those who were slain of the 
Lord and raised to a new spiritual life. 

If this explanation of the episode of the 
two witnesses is correct the depreciation, or 
rather, perhaps, under-appreciation of the 
Old Testament, which exists even among 
those who do not question its inspiration, is 
without ground or reason. In the opinion 
of St. John the addition of the New Testa- 
ment does not in any wise supersede or ren- 
der obsolete the older Scriptures. In the 
education of the human race the Creator 
did not begin with the more abstruse and 
highly developed teachings of the New 
Testament, but with the natural, biograph- 
ical, historical, and providential facts of the 
Old. With the exception of the evangel- 
ical gospels, which belong really to both 
dispensations, since the Christ whose life 
and words and deeds are there recorded is 
both the consummation of the one dispen- 

93 



Revelation of Saint John 

sation and the seed and promise of the 
other, no part of holy writ exceeds in inter- 
est, attractiveness, and simplicity the law 
and the prophets, in which John and Peter 
and Paul were trained. 

The Old Testament contains, albeit in 
embryo, all doctrines and truths essential 
to the kingdom of Christ. If for a while it 
was kept secreted within the bounds of Ju- 
daism, this was not because its revelations 
were meant exclusively for the chosen peo- 
ple, but that its sacred treasures might be 
guarded from waste and wanton destruction 
until the rest of the world was prepared to 
welcome them. If much of its meaning 
was misconceived and misconstrued by the 
Jewish mind, this must be attributed largely 
to the frailty and ignorance of human na- 
ture. The New Testament does not so 
much add to the Old Testament as illus- 
trate, explain, and apply it. It is the in- 
terpreter, not the destroyer, of the Old. It 
opens its secrets, brings to light its truths, 
reveals to us the face of Jesus Christ every- 
where in it, and enforces its teachings by 
the power of the Holy Spirit. But the 
Scriptures of the Old Testament are the 
imperishable record of the foundation of 

94 



Means by which Advanced 

Christ*s kingdom upon earth. Without 
them the writings of the New Testament 
would be without connection with that con- 
tinuous chain of inspiration whose first link 
was forged when God said, '' Let there be 
light/' And, equally so, without the New 
Testament the Old would be merely a foun- 
dation lacking a superstructure, and thus 
incomplete. Its chain of inspiration would 
be without any sure anchorage in the future 
eternity, and thus hang helpless and use- 
less, with no power to bridge the gulf be- 
tween the alpha and omega, the beginning 
of time and its end. But the Old Testament 
can never become obsolete. Not one jot or 
tittle of it shall pass away until all is ful- 
filled. And the revelation given in the 
New Testament can no more supersede or 
abolish it than science can supersede nature, 
of which it is the ordained expositor. 

There is a healthiness, too, about the Old 
Testament like to the quiet restfulness of 
nature. When men are disposed to wander 
from the safe path into the vagaries of mys- 
ticism or asceticism nothing will correct the 
aberrance more surely than diligent and 
profound study of its sober realities and its 
everyday life. The reading of it calms the 

95 



Revelation of Saint John 

fevers and dispels the illusions to which we 
are prone. It brings to us those soothing in- 
fluences which we feel when w^e look at the 

** Good gigantic smile of the brown old earth 
On autumn mornings," 

or, lying under forest shades, watch the 
gentle swaying of foliage, or listen to the 
purling of brooks, or catch glimpses of the 
calm blue sky. We need its concrete facts 
to save us from the abstractions of a vague 
and unreal idealism. 

Thus closes the vision of the trumpets. 
They represent the messengers whom God 
employs to call men to repentance, the 
methods he avails himself of to forward the 
kingdom within and without us. He will 
not cease to strive with us until every ap- 
peal likely to reach us has been tried. 
When nature and the supernatural, the 
word of God in providence and the richer 
word of God in revelation, have exerted 
their power the resources of the divine 
Being have been, we may v/ith all rever- 
ence say, exhausted, and the time is ripe 
for the closing of the drama of probation, 
that he which is righteous may be righteous 
still, and he which is filthy may be filthy 
still. 

96 



Means by which Advanced 

Yet the writer of the Revelation does not 
allow us to remain in doubt as to the result 
of God's efforts to save a lost world. The 
wisdom of God is not astray. ' ' He will 
rest in his love.'* He has himself absolute 
confidence in the success of the plans of re- 
demption. When the seventh and last trum- 
pet shall sound the curtain will fall upon a 
world restored to God, upon a paradise re- 
gained, and great voices in heaven shall 
say, ' ' The kingdoms of this world are be- 
come the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his 
Christ; and he shall reign forever and 

ever." 

n 97 



PART IV 
TIbe 3foes of tfee IRing&om 



The Foes of the Kingdom 



PART IV 
The Foes of the Kingdom 

With chapter xii another section of the 
Apocalypse begins. Two great truths re- 
lating to the kingdom of Christ have been 
discussed — the fundamental principle of 
mediatorial sovereignty upon which it is 
based, and the instruments, providence and 
the written word, by which it is advanced. 
It follows very naturally and logically that 
the antagonists by whom the kingdom is 
opposed should also be disclosed to us. 
Out of his abundant grace and in tender 
compassion for human ignorance, God has 
made known to us, through this marvelous 
book, the adversaries with whom we must 
contend before the kingdom can attain its 
consummation in our hearts or in the world 
at large. 

While no part of the Revelation is easy 
of interpretation, or can be made intelligi- 
ble without very careful study both of itself 
and of the whole Bible, there has been 
added to this part of it the embarrassment 
of the odium theologicum. Bitter controver- 
sial strifes have raged around the interpre- 

101 



Revelation of Saint John 

tation of it and have raised a cloud of 
prejudices, through which the truth has 
been sometimes dimly seen. From all such 
prejudices we must free ourselves. We are 
approaching holy ground, and it behooves 
us to put off our shoes, that nothing of 
human invention may intervene between 
our naked feet and the sacred floor of God's 
temple. 

We need this caution the more because 
from the nature of the case the interpreta- 
tion of this part carries us more or less into 
the field of hivStory. The foes of the kingdom 
of Christ are visible foes, as well as invis- 
ible. The contest is not only for the indi- 
vidual man, but for the race. The commis- 
sion given to the Church is, ''Go, preach 
my Gospel to every creature;*' and the key- 
note of the song of triumph with which the 
last part closed was, ' ' The kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, 
and of his Christ.'' 

There is, therefore, a tendency to confine 
the interpretation to the field of history, to 
direct the attention to large and collective 
bodies of men, either world powers or re- 
ligious societies, or to those historical events 
and cycles of events which have apparently 

102 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

changed the currents of the ages, and to 
insist that in these the fulfillment of the 
prophecy lies. 

But history itself is only the record of in- 
dividuals. We delude ourselves when we 
fancy that b}^ association anything is cre- 
ated. That mystical something which is 
imagined to be in collective bodies more 
than in the individuals that compose them is 
a mere figment of the brain, and to discuss 
it is simply to revive the barren conceits of 
the schoolmen. A Church is only '' a con- 
gregation of believing men; '' a State is a 
cooperative association of individuals, not a 
corporation ; and neither one has any powers 
or forces other than those which exist in the 
individual members. Man is both the mi- 
crocosm and the macrocosm. 

The chief value of the inspired book 
which we are now studying lies in the fact 
that it discloses to us those forces, spiritual 
and otherwise, the conflict between which 
makes up the life history of each indi- 
vidual of mankind. It is a chart meant 
for every navigator of this boundless ocean 
of human existence. Its truths will be as 
precious and important to the last man on 
this globe as they are to us. The reefs and 

103 



Revelation of Saint John 

breakers it describes are not perils past which 
any age can sail and then look back upon 
as things done with, but dangers which 
beset every voyager. It is true that in the 
history of large bodies of men, whether 
secular or religious in their character — in 
the temptations, declension, growth, and 
triumph of nations and Churches — illustra- 
tions of its truths and fulfillments of its pre- 
dictions w411 be found. But these, we must 
insist, are merely illustrations. Long as the 
world shall last the Apocalyse will prove it- 
self to be a part of God's boon of revelation, 
in that each follower of Christ shall find it 
of inestimable value for his own private 
guidance, inspiration, and study. 

Looking by the light of God's lamp 
through the ages to come, John was allowed 
to foresee the successful completion of the 
lifework and plans of Jesus the Saviour. 
He who began both his gospel and his great 
epistle with '' the beginning" also follows 
the course of the drama of redemption to 
its final ''amen." The saint who, leaning 
on the bosom of Jesus, looked up to him as 
the Author of his faith was also permitted 
to fall at his majestic feet and worship him 
as its Finisher. And, from personal com- 

104 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

munion with and contemplation of him as 
the Son of man, he rose to the grander con- 
ception of him as the Christ, the Word of 
God, King of kings, and Lord of lords. He 
was taught, also, that the progress through 
which his own conceptions of the Son of 
God had passed was but a type and example 
of that which shall take place in time on the 
field of the world and in the hearts of man- 
kind. The cross upon which Jesus of Naz- 
areth suffered was, indeed, a throne from 
which he ascended to the crown of the uni- 
verse. But John, too, saw that ere that 
final consummation can be reached there 
are foes to be encountered, hindrances to be 
removed, antagonists to be overthrown. A 
great and effectual door is opened unto us, 
but there are many adversaries. To the 
consideration of these he therefore now calls 
our attention : 

I . The Dragon, or Satan, — The first of the 
adversaries with whom the kingdom of 
Christ has to dispute supremacy is the devil, 
the archfiend and enemy of God and man. 

That Satan, the evil one, is referred to in 
the description of the great red dragon hav- 
ing seven heads, ten horns, and seven dia- 
dems seems an interpretation so natural that 

105 



Revelation of Saint John 

it is hardly worth while to seek for far- 
fetched meanings when so plausible an ex- 
planation lies near at hand. The ten horns 
(Zeehariah saw but four — Zech. i, i8) are 
the instruments with which he seeks to scat- 
ter and destroy the sheep of God. The 
seven heads with diadems represent the 
pride and haughtiness of spirit in which he 
boasts that the power and glory of all king- 
doms have been delivered to him and that 
he gives them to whom he will. It is a 
struggle for life and death between him and 
the Christ. If Paul, the man of affairs, 
with his practical conception of things in 
their concrete relations, says, * ' Our wrest- 
ling is not against flesh and blood, but 
against the principalities, against the pow- 
ers, against the world-rulers of this dark- 
ness, against the spiritual hosts of wicked- 
ness in the heavenly places*' (Revised Ver- 
sion), much more strongly does John, with 
his intuition of abstract principles, recognize 
and emphasize the power and working of 
the dark spirit whose names are Satan and 
** destroyer.'' No writer of the New Testa- 
ment speaks oftener or more clearly of the 
evil spirit than does John. In vivid imagery 
and with graphic condensation he sums up 

106 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

the history of the kingdom of darkness, the 
long record of Satan's undying antagonism 
to the kingdom of Christ. 

The woman arrayed '' with the snn, and 
the moon tinder her feet, and upon her head 
a crown of twelve stars '' (see Gen. xxxvii, 
9), represents the Church collectively and in 
its most general expression ; primarily, the 
Jewish Church, inasmuch as Christianity 
had just begun its mission; but not confined 
thereto. Against the Church, against every 
individual of it, this murderer a.nd liar from 
the beginning wages relentless warfare. 
His is the povvcr behind all other antago- 
nisms. To devour the child of the woman 
in the hour of its birth, to destroy humanity 
itself if he can, seems to be the aim of his 
being. Not a soul is now born into the 
kingdom of Christ by regenerating grace 
but Satan is there to crush the newly-given 
life, if possible, in its inception. 

When the first gospel of salvation and 
victory was given to Eve, '' Thy seed shall 
bruise the serpent's head," vSatan began 
his machinations to defeat the prophecy, 
even though he knew that he could do no 
more than bruise the heel of the promised 
seed. 

107 



Revelation of Saint John 

When tlie promise given to Abrahani of 
a posterity countless as the stars of heaven 
was about to receive its fulfillment in the 
extraordinary fertility of the sons of Jacob 
in 'Egypt, it was Satan who inspired Pha- 
raoh to issue the cruel edict commanding 
the death of every Hebrev/ male child. 

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of 
Judea it was the same dragon that urged 
Herod to his mad purpose of slaying every 
young child throughout its coasts. ' ' This 
is the heir ; let us kill him, that the inher- 
itance may be ours/' 

And it is against this wily foe, '' the prince 
of the power of the air,'' ' ' the spirit that now 
worketh in the children of disobedience," 
that we all have continually to struggle. 

For protection against such an adversary 
there is certainly need of divine aid. And 
that help has never been withheld. ' ' There 
were given to the w^om.an the two wings of 
a great eagle." Is not this an echo of Exod. 
xix, 4, *' I bare you on eagles' wings," and 
also of Psalm xci, 4, '' And under his wings 
shalt thou trust " ? And in addition to this 
we are told that God prepared '' a place " in 
the wilderness where the woman might fly 
and be nourished. Does not this refer to 

108 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

Palestine, that quiet, secluded land, nigh the 
great highways of the VN^orld and yet aloof 
from them, where in comparative isolation 
Israel might develop her own resources and 
grow in strength until she should be ready 
for her broader mission ? If the purpose of 
the divine Being fell short of full realization 
the fault was not his, but hers, through her 
lust to be like the surrounding nations. 

The numbers, too, representing the period 
of this seclusion, ' ' twelve hundred and sixty 
days,'* and "a time, times, and half a 
time,'* are forms of three and a half, which, 
as has been said in the Introduction, sym- 
bolizes Judaism, or any cycle with a definite 
purpose which is, however, only a half 
period. 

And further confirmation of the reference 
to the Church of Israel is found in the allu- 
sion to the archangel ]\Iichael, who is always 
represented in the Scriptures as sustaining 
some special relation to Israel (Dan. x, 21 ; 
xii, i). 

Yet, mighty as Satan is and venomous as 
is his hostility, the believer is endowed with 
weapons of offense and defense still more 
potent. ' ' They overcame him by the blood 
of the Lamb, and by the word of their tes- 

109 



Revelation of Saint John 

timony " (or ''witness'* with reference, 
doubtless, to the testimony of the two wit- 
nesses of the preceding chapter). In other 
words, the cross of Christ and the word of 
God are the conquering weapons with which 
believers win the victory over Satan. The 
Lord Jestis had most plainly foretold the 
secret of victory in the hearing of John 
when he had said, *' Now is the judgment 
of this world : now shall the prince of this 
world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up 
from the earth, wnll drav/ all men unto me.'' 
And, doubtless, these words came with full- 
ness and force to the memory of the apostle 
when he heard the ' ' loud voice saying in 
heaven, Now is come salvation and strength, 
and the kingdom of our God, and the power 
of his Christ : for the accuser of our brethren 
is cast down.*' 

Not yet, however, is Satan ready to cease 
his efforts to destroy. He changes the field 
of conflict, but does not relinquish the 
malice of his assault. If he cannot in 
heaven, that is, the Church, countervail the 
kingdom of Christ, he will attempt it in the 
earth, on the field of secular life. '' The 
serpent cast out of his mouth water as a 
flood, after the woman: that he might 

110 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

cause her to be carried away of the flood." 
There is, perhaps, a reference here to 
Isa. lix, 19: **When the enemy shall 
come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord 
shall lift up a standard against him." Look- 
ing back at that chapter, we shall find that 
the flood spoken of means an unusual in- 
crease of social disorders and crimes. That 
is most probably the meaning here. Satan 
is the foe alike of God and man. His en- 
mity is directed as much against all order 
and morality as against goodness and right- 
eousness. He is that ''lawless one" of 
whom Paul speaks in 2 Thess. ii, 3 (Re- 
vised Version). If he were allowed to carry 
out his will he would subvert all govern- 
ment, spiritual or secular. But, says the 
apostle and seer, ' ' The earth helped the 
woman." For its own protection and ex- 
istence the State must execute laws, must 
preserve order, and must secure itself 
against anarchy and unbridled libertinism ; 
and, in so far as it guards social morality, it 
fosters spiritual prosperity. In restraining 
crime and violence it must needs allow the 
kingdom of Christ opportunity to grow. 
Foiled thus again, Satan does not abandon 

the conflict, but resorts to other and more 

111 



Revelation of Saint John 

wily means to make war with the ' ' rem- 
nant '* of the woman's seed ''which keep the 
commandments of God, and have the tes- 
timony of Jestis Christ;" and the history 
of these efforts must next engage our at- 
tention. 

2. T/ze First Wild Beast, or the Spirit of 
Worldliness, — In the chapter of the Revela- 
tion which precedes the appearance of the 
beasts (Rev. xii, 12) the warning had been 
given, *' Woe to the inhabiters of the earth 
and of the sea ! for the devil is come down 
unto you, having great wrath." We are 
now to witness the fulfillment of this warn- 
ing. The apostle saw two wild beasts rise, 
one from the sea, the other from the land, 
both of them formidable foes and intense in 
their hostility to the kingdom of Christ. 
There can hardly be a question but that 
these are intended to represent the means 
by which Satan, thwarted in his direct as- 
saults, endeavors to carry on his warfare. 
And just as Christ, in carrying forward his 
mediatorial kingdom, makes use of the two 
instrumentalities, providence and the writ- 
ten word, so also, in imitation of him, his 
fierce antagonist has his two emissaries and 

agents. We shall find as we study this 

112 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

part of the Revelation that one of the most 
deceptive and dangerous arts which Satan 
employs is his manner of counterfeiting the 
form and aping the methods of Christ, in 
hope that he may thereb}^ delude the unsus- 
pecting or heedless. We ought, therefore, 
very carefully to note every feature, that we 
may be able to detect these dangerous in- 
carnations of the spirit of evil, and thus 
escape his snares. 

The first wild beast of John's vision rose 
from the sea — an expression which, when 
used symbolically, designates the secular or 
temporal world, in antithesis to the Church. 
His distinctive characteristics are intense 
pride, the possession of vast power, strong 
vitality enabling him to recover speedily 
from severe injuries, insatiable craving after 
homage and ability to secure it, outrageous 
blasphemy, and undisguised as well as un- 
ceasing hostility to Christ and his saints. 
It is a mooted question whether by this 
beast John meant to describe and foretell 
the coming of some individual person or 
some organization of men, secular or reli- 
gious. State or Church ; or whether the char- 
acteristics he portrays are intended to repre- 
sent some principle of evil, always at work, 

8 113 



Revelation of Saint John 

mightier and more enduring than any or- 
ganization of men, which manifests itself 
in various forms and at all times, but tran- 
scends all its manifestations, and against 
which, because it is one of Satan's most suc- 
cessful means of antagonism, every Christian 
must keep perpetual watch. 

The latter of these hypotheses seems to 
be more in keeping with the cast of John's 
strongly idealistic and abstract mind, and 
also with the purpose of the Apocalypse as 
intended for the edifying of believers. 
And furthermore, as the kingdom of God is 
not something that cometh ' ' with observa- 
tion," so that men can say of it, '^ Lo here ! 
or, lo there!'' but is something ''within" 
us, so its opponent is not to be sought in 
any particular organization or special event 
or single individual, but rather in some ab- 
stract principle, all the more dangerous be- 
cause it exists separate and distinct from 
these. 

In his description of this wild beast John 
draws his data from the prophecy of Daniel ; 
and a study of that book wall aid in the 
elucidation of this. It is, indeed, true that 
in the mind of Daniel the antagonists and 
allies of God alike assumed the form of king- 

114 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

doms, or world powers. But this resulted 
from the fact that his cast of mind was es- 
sentially concrete, and also because as a 
statesman and man of affairs, charged with 
the administration of finances and politics, 
accustomed to the handling of men in col- 
lective bodies and to deal with, matters af- 
fecting their external relations, his concep- 
tions of religion regarded rather its outward 
manifestations than its inward power. We 
are not, however, compelled to believe that 
John, while using the prophecies of Daniel 
as his basis, was limited to the conceptions 
of the older prophet. He had a better key 
to the hieroglyphics of the kingdom and 
could read their meaning more clearly. Be- 
hind the forces which play their part upon 
the world's stage he could recognize the 
spiritual principles of which they were in- 
carnations. 

The world power which loomed largest to 
the mind of Daniel, and whose hostility to 
the kingdom of Christ was most dreaded by 
him, was one that sprang up after the death 
and among the successors of Alexander the 
Great. That extraordinary captain and 
gifted statesman, the first ruler who grasped 
the conception of the essential unity of man- 

llo 



Revelation of Saint John 

kind and who strove to realize it by the fu- 
sion of races into one nation, left no one at 
his death capable of comprehending or ex- 
ecuting his plans ; and the empire that was 
formed by his ten generals was a heteroge- 
neous one, possessing elements both of weak- 
ness and strength that were incapable of be- 
ing welded into unity. Among the descend- 
ants and successors of these generals was 
Antiochus Epiphanes, whose hatred of Juda- 
ism amounted to real monomania, and whose 
insane purpose to exterminate utterly the 
customs, usages, religion, and even the ex- 
istence of Judaism carried him to such ex- 
tremes as to arouse a spirit of revolt which, 
under the guidance of the Maccabees, de- 
feated his intent. In him the prophet 
Daniel foresaw the incarnation of all that 
is hostile to Christ and his kingdom. 

In the days of John the political sover- 
eignty of the world was wielded by a still 
more formidable power, one that combined 
in itself the strength of all the four kingdoms 
of Daniel, uniting the lion, the bear, and 
the leopard with the added and imparted 
authority and power of the dragon. That 
power was the Roman Empire, between 
which and Christianity had already begun 

116 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

the antagonism which Avas to leave its de- 
cisive and disastrous effects upon both. 

The policy of Rome toward conquered 
peoples and religions had not been one, 
customarily, of harsli severity; indeed, it 
had been marked in general by unusual 
liberality. Having so many gods in her 
own Pantheon, it has been said, the addi- 
tion or subtraction of a few more or less 
was hardly worth consideration. But upon 
one thing Rome invariably and absolutely 
insisted — the preservation of public order. 
Her administration was one of strict, even 
stern, paternalism. The individual existed 
for the State, and had no rights but such as 
the State allowed. The central power did 
all the thinking; the subject had only to 
submit, whatever his personal wishes. Upon 
the emperor, as the embodiment of the 
State, devolved the onerous responsibility 
of securing and, if need were, of enforcing 
peaceful and lawful relations between men 
and men. Whenever therefore, the profes- 
sion of any religion or the organization of 
any guild or association interfered with the 
prosperity of any branch of trade or com- 
merce or manufacture, the emperor felt called 

upon to interpose, in order to redress the in- 

117 



Revelation of Saint John 

jury caused or wrong suffered thereb5^ The 
more conscientious and upright the em- 
peror, the more he felt the responsibility of 
administering the laws ; and thus just and 
righteous rulers, like Trajan and Antoninus 
and Marcus Aurelius, were more likely to 
enforce these rules of order, even to the 
point of persecution, than such men as Nero 
and Caligula and Domitian, upon whom 
moral considerations sat loosely. 

The early persecutions of Christians 
sprang out of this fact. There were things 
Christian men would not do. They would 
not eat meat sacrificed to idols; they 
would not attend the spectacles of the 
theater; they would not worship or own 
images; and, as the trades and professions 
that lived by these things suffered with the 
increase of Christians, complaint was made 
to the emperor, and the power of the State 
invoked in behalf of public order. The riot 
at Ephesus (Acts xix, 23-41) is a case in 
illustration. 

Very soon, however, the Roman authori- 
ties came to see that there was something 
back of Christian worship that differentiated 
it from other cults. There w^as a principle 

of individual liberty, a conviction of per- 
ns 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

sonal freedom, an appreciation of tinseen 
and divine realities which, if unchecked, 
threatened the paternalism and the emperor 
— the worship of the Csesars and the contin- 
uance of the empire ; and so Christians be- 
gan to be persecuted simply because they 
were Christians. Thus began the antago- 
nism that did not cease until the empire be- 
came nominally Christian, and the Church, 
striving after the universality of the em- 
pire, became worldly and paternal in its 
turn. This antagonism John clearly dis- 
cerned, and reveals it in the Apocalypse. 

But we shall be astray if we conceive that 
the beast which the apostle saw symbolized 
only the Roman or any other empire. There 
is an evil principle which was in existence 
long before that empire was established, 
and has continued with unabating energy 
since its dissolution ; of whose power earthly 
and worldly kingdoms are but manifesta- 
tions ; which Satan has employed in all ages 
as one of his most successful weapons ; and 
whose deadly hostility to the Christian and 
the Church is implacable. It is the principle 
of worldliness, that spirit of the world 
against which the Bible so frequently and 
faithfully warns us. 

119 



Revelation of Saint John 

It is not easy to define worldliness. If it 
could be described exactly, and its bounds 
accurately meted, its danger would be great- 
ly diminished. If we could point to the 
doing or abstaining from doing of specified 
things, or the using or refraining from using 
of any particular faculties, and say, ' ' This 
is worldliness and this only," how much 
easier it would be to avoid it ! Worldliness 
is a principle, a spirit and temper of the 
soul. It can find afield for its exercise any- 
where and everywhere, in things essentially 
good as well as in the essentially evil. Its 
intrinsic spirit lies in this — that it disen- 
gages men and things from their normal 
relation of dependence upon and subjection 
to God, and sets them up as rivals to him. 
It assumes to displace the Creator from his 
rightful sovereignty over thoughts and de- 
sires and affections and activities, and trans- 
fers allegiance to some created thing. It 
substitutes something temporal and earthly 
for God and gives to it the worship that 
belongs undividedly to him. It manifests 
itself, John tells us, in *nhe lust of the flesh, 
the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of 
life.*' This is the spirit of which the Bible 
speaks so plainly and forcibly in passages 

120 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

like these: *' If the world hate you, ye 
know tha,t it hated me before it hated you ;" 
' ' The carnal mind is enmity against God, 
for it is not subject to the law of God, 
neither indeed can be;*' '' Know ye not that 
the friendship of the world is enmity with 
God? whosoever, therefore, will be a friend 
of the world, is the enemy of God;" *' If 
any man love the world, the love of the 
Father is not in him." And every charac- 
teristic of the wild beast which John saw 
exhibits this spirit of worldliness. It, and 
it alone, exhausts the fullness of the de- 
scription. 

Of this beast which John saw, one of the 
heads was, as it were, '' wounded [or slain] 
to death " — the very words v/hich were used 
in the description of the Lamb (Rev. v, 6), 
as if there were in this an attempted, al- 
though feeble, imitation of Christ. World- 
liness, too, has its Calvaries and Gethsema- 
nes ; but they fall far short in measure and 
in purpose of the great sacrifice of the cross. 
They are compulsory, not self-chosen sacri- 
fices ; they are not redemptive and substi- 
tutional in their design, but retributive in- 
flictions of divine justice ; they involve but 
a part of the being, and are not, as was 

121 



Revelation of Saint John 

Christ'vS offering, the surrender of the whole 
self. 

Many such wounds has worldliness re- 
ceived. The serpent's head has been bruised 
again and again by the seed of the woman. 
In the judgments w^hich have come upon 
the world throughout the course of its his- 
tory — in the deluge, the destruction of Sod- 
om and Gomorrah, the exodus from Egypt, 
the overthrow of Nineveh and Babylon, the 
fall of Jerusalem — its spirit has been re- 
buked, condemned, punished. Indeed, in 
all the dissolutions and decay of nature — in 
the fading of the grass, in the falling of the 
flower and of the leaf — the warning is being 
constantly given, ' ' The world passeth away, 
and the lust thereof." Most of all, in the 
cross of Christ has the world received its 
deadliest w^ound. But how soon is the wound 
healed, how quickly are the lessons of prov- 
idence forgotten ! and the tide of worldli- 
ness, stayed for a moment, resumes its vol- 
ume and rapidity and carries its victims to 
their destruction. 

It is this power of recuperation which con- 
tributes to the might of worldliness and 
makes it the more dangerous. Success adds 
to its fascinations and multiplies its votaries. 

122- 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

*' All the world wondered after the beast" 
whose deadly wound was healed. In com- 
parison with its triumphs the cross of Christ 
becomes a stumbling-block to some and fool- 
ishness to others, because of the paucity of 
its victories. And in worshiping the beast 
its followers are scarcely aware, or are obliv- 
ious to the fact, that they are worshiping 
the dragon himself; for Paul says, '*The 
things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sac- 
rifice to devils, and not to God." 

Another striking and conspicuous charac- 
teristic of the first beast was his virulent 
blasphemy. Upon his heads were *'the 
names of blasphemy.*' The voices of his 
mouth were blasphemy. His fierce, am- 
bitious purpose to displace God and usurp 
his throne — and this is what the Bible de- 
fines blasphemy to be — moved him to de- 
mand such homage as can be given rightly 
to God alone, and to set up his own taber- 
nacle and name as competitors with God's. 
Is not this descriptive of the spirit of world- 
liness? How exacting it is of the worship 
of its devotees ! In place of the Creator, who 
is blessed for ever, it substitutes the crea- 
ture. It enthrones nature in some one or 
other of its phases as the rival of the divine 

123 



Revelation of Saint John 

Being. It will not admit the visible uni- 
verse, with its laws, to be merely the vehi- 
cle through which God reveals himself and 
his thoughts, but demands for it equality of 
homage with its Maker. It does not claim 
for itself powder to work miracles, and will 
not believe that any are possible. It does 
not base its authority upon any supernatural 
revelation, and denies that any is needful. 
Like Absalom, in the gates it whispers in 
every man's ears, " O that I were made 
judge in the land!'' and thus draws unwary 
souls into treason against their King. It 
arrogates to itself the right to the whole of 
man's being — to all beauty and life, to all 
literature and art, to all recreation and en- 
joyment, to the exclusive and undivided use 
and administration of all earthly powers and 
faculties. 

And how ruthless and cruel this spirit of 
worldliness can be ! Does any human soul, 
driven by dissatisfaction and heartache, seek 
to lift the veil and penetrate to the secret 
shrine of the universe, or to pierce the ''rose 
mesh " of mystery that surrounds us and as- 
cend to the divine Spirit above and beyond 
it, how quickly is the fascinating smile of 
the world turned to bitter scorn, and its 

124 



The Foes of the Kingdom 



o 



smooth flattery to remorseless persecution ! 
With what haughtiness and assumption does 
it contend that, in everything relating to 
music and poetry, to the aesthetic arts, to 
finance and politics and social matters, the 
question of morals has no place and God and 
religion have no right to enter ! 

To this beast, we are further informed, 
power, or authority, was given ' ' to continue 
forty and two months.'' This number, it 
has been previously said, is the symbol of 
an epoch which is limited and fractional, 
but which has a definite purpose pervad- 
ing it. 

Throughout the whole period of Judaism 
this beast raged with all his ferocity against 
the Church of the Old Testament. And, 
although the wild beast next to be deline- 
ated was a more formidable adversary to re- 
ligion than even he, 3^et the temptation to 
fall into the ways, and follow the practices, 
and to drop down to the religious level of 
the ungodly Vv^orld of heathenism around 
constituted a peril to the Hebrew faith 
against which the prophets had need fre- 
quently to lift their voices. And how con- 
stant even now is the peril to the Christian 
Church and the Christian believer of falling 

125 



Revelation of Saint John 

into the worship of the vSame beast of world- 
liness, is so patent a truth that every man*s 
observation and experience are sufficient to 
prove it. The victims of worldliness are, 
indeed, many, and to resist sorely tries ** the 
patience and the faith of the saints/' But 
its doom is sure and irretrievable, whether 
that doom shall come by the svrord of God 
or by captivity. Its own methods of hos- 
tility shall be turned against itself. 

3. The Second Wild Beast ^ or the Spirit of 
False Prophetism. — In attempting to solve 
the mystery of the second wild beast which 
John saw we are confronted with a task 
much more serious than has as yet been pre- 
sented to us. Not only is this antagonist 
of Christ a more formidable one than any 
hitherto encountered, but there seems an 
almost purposed obscurity and indistinctness 
about the description, as if to the seer himself 
the beast appeared in so vague and nebulous 
a form, or else was of such composite and 
heterogeneous character, as to be incapable 
of more exact delineation. The only way 
to reach the truth is to seek out such features 
of the description as may be regarded plain, 
and from them to advance to the more per- 
plexing ones. 

126 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

It will be noticed, then, that the second 
beast rises not as the preceding from the 
sea, but from the earth ; that is, from the 
Church, not in its ideal state, but in its ac- 
tual condition, as the field of human activity 
and influence. 

Again, it is noticeable that, while in the 
description of the first beast the expression 
'' it was given him " occurs again and again 
(much more conspicuously in the original 
than in the translation), in the case of the 
second one this expression is, in the main, 
although not in every instance, superseded 
by words suggesting active agency — '^he 
doeth," '' he maketh," '' he causeth" — these 
being all various renderings of the same 
Greek word. This would seem to imply 
that, while the first beast is merely an emis- 
sary or instrument executing the will of 
another, the second differs from him in that 
he has, or assumes to have, some power of 
originating action, some causative agency, 
and that he regards himself as having inde- 
pendent authority. While, therefore, the 
results effected by both are the same {'' He 
had powder to give breath to the image of 
the beast "), those results are brought about 
in different ways. 

127 



Revelation of Saint John 

Another very important feature of the de- 
scription is that, while the distinguishing 
characteristic of the first beast is blasphemy 
— an open and undisguised assumption of 
the prerogatives of God, with intense and 
avowed hostility to him — the properties of 
the second are duplicity, deception, and self- 
deceit — perversion of the truth rather than 
antagonism to it; and hypocrisy, if more 
insidious, is far deadlier than open opposi- 
tion. He has the appearance of a lamb, 
while speaking as a dragon. He is said to 
work miracles, or at least is said to profess 
so to do, which the first beast did not. And 
he counterfeits the work of God, in that by 
a peculiar mark he stamps upon his follow- 
ers his claim to them, as the divine Being 
affixes to his a seal in attestation of his own- 
ership. 

One further remark may be made. Three 
times in the subsequent part of the Revela- 
tion (Rev. xvi, 13; xix, 20; xx, 10) these 
two adversaries of Christ are brought into 
juxtaposition, and in these instances it is 
the first beast alone who is designated by 
that name. The second beast has the syn- 
onym of ''the false prophet." The term 
seems to mark his superior power .or craft; 

128 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

to the malice of a beast is added the higher 
intelligence of a man. The combination 
attests the formidable character of this wily 
antagonist. 

In this last-named feature lies a sugges- 
tion which may serve as a clew to the inter- 
pretation of the symbol and unveil its mys- 
tery. A false prophet can stand only in 
contrast with a true one. It will be need- 
ful, therefore, to discuss, somewhat in de- 
tail, the characteristic functions of the pro- 
phetical office as set forth in the Scriptures. 

*'The usage of the word [prophet]," says 
Cremer,"^ '*is clear. It signifies one to 
whom and through whom God speaks. 
What really constitutes the prophet is im- 
mediate intercourse with God, a divine com- 
munication of what the prophet must de- 
clare. Two things, therefore, go to make 
the prophet — an insight granted by God into 
the divine secrets or mysteries, and a com- 
munication to others of those vSecrets. New 
Testament prophets were for the Christian 
Church what Old Testament prophets were 
for Israel, inasmuch as they maintained in- 
tact the immediate connection between the 

"^Lexicon of New Testament Greeks third English edition, 

pp. 568, 569. 

9 129 



Revelation of Saint John 

Church and, not the Holy Spirit in her, but 
the God of her salvation above her. The 
prophets, both in the old and the new dis- 
pensations, were messengers or media of 
communication between the upper and the 
lower world/' 

^'The primary idea of a prophet,'' says 
Ewald,"^ '' is of one who has seen or heard 
something which does not concern himself, 
or not himself alone, which will not let him 
rest. It wholly absorbs him, ... so that 
he no longer hears or is conscious of him- 
self, but of the loud and clear voice of an- 
other who is higher than himself. He acts 
and speaks, not of his own accord ; a higher 
one impels him, to resist whom is sin. It 
is his God, who is also the God of those to 
whom he must speak." 

''That which," says Oehler,t ''made the 
prophet a prophet was not his natural gifts 
nor his own intention ; and that which 
lie proclaimed as the prophetic word was 
not the mere result of instruction received 
nor the product of his own reflection. The 

^Prophets of the Old Testament, vol. i, p. 7. London, 
Williams and Norgate. 

\ Theology of the Old Testament, §§205, 206, New York, 
Funk and Wagnalls. 

130 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

prophet, as such, knows himself to be the 
organ of divine revelation, in virtue both of 
a divine vocation capable of being known by 
him as such, . . . and also of his endow- 
ment with the enlightening, sanctifying, and 
strengthening Spirit of God." 

With these statements the concurrent 
testimony of the New Testament is in har- 
mony : ' ' God ... at sundry times and in 
divers manners spake in time past unto 
the fathers by the prophets " (Heb. i, i); 
''The prophecy came not in old time by 
the will of man : but holy men of God spake 
as they v^^ere moved by the Holy Ghost" 
(2 Pet. i, 21). 

It was, therefore, essential to the credi- 
bility and authority of the prophet that he 
should have received some direct revelation 
from God. The message intrusted to him 
to deliver must be from a source above and 
outside himself. It was not sufficient that 
God spake in him ; he must be able to say 
that God spake to him. When to the stu- 
dent prepared by the guidance of a teacher 
to receive them nature reveals its facts 
and laws, these come to him as something 
external to him. They are not suggestions 
or inspirations of his own mind, but owe 

131 



Revelation of Saint John 

their origin to a source exterior to it. So 
likewise with the prophet. How the revela- 
tion came to him, and how his hearers be- 
came convinced that God had spoken to him, 
are questions that do not touch the truth of 
his message. The important thing is that 
the prophet was the agent and representa- 
tive of God in delivering a message which 
had previously been committed to him. 
Herein lay the distinction between the 
priesthood and the prophetical office. A 
priest was a man on whom was laid the re- 
sponsibility of appearing before God on 
behalf of men ; a prophet was one who stood 
in the presence of men on behalf of God. 
A priest represented man in the court of 
God ; a prophet represented God in the court 
of human life. A priest was man's advo- 
cate ; a prophet was God's advocate. The 
function of the priest was to intercede 
for his fellows ; identity of condition and 
tender sympathy with them were therefore 
prime requisites. The function of a prophet 
was to deliver God's word to man ; strict 
fidelity to his message and to the truth were 
his essential qualifications. As the priest- 
hood, then, was a type of Christ, finding 
its perfect realization in him who laid down 

132 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

his life a ransom for us, the prophetical 
office was a type of the Holy Ghost, whose 
work it is to convey to man the message of 
God, whether it be of conviction, of justi- 
fication, of sanctification, of inspiration, or 
of assurance. 

If, therefore, by a '' false Christ " is meant 
one who usurps the place of Christ and sub- 
stitutes himself for him, demanding from 
men the allegiance due only to the Son of 
God, then by a '* false prophet" must be 
meant one who unconsciously or purposely 
substitutes himself for the Holy Spirit, 
setting forth his own conceptions or visions 
as the voice of God. 

'' The characteristic," says Oehler,^ '' of 
the false prophets is declared to be that 
they speak that which they themselves 
have devised. These latter are designated 
(Ezek. xiii, 2) as prophets * out of their own 
hearts,' who 'follow their own spirit, and 
have seen nothing •/ 'they speak,* according 
to Jer. xxiii, 16, ''a vision of their own 
heart, and not out of the mouth of the 
Lord.*" 

No stage of history has been free from 
such presumptuous prophets. Their exist- 

'^ Theology of the Old Testame?zt, p. 464. 
133 



Revelation of Saint John 

ence and the disastrous work they wrought 
are set forth again and again in the Old 
Testament Scriptures. But that their ap- 
pearance in larger numbers and under more 
formidable guises may be expected in the 
New Testament dispensation follows from 
a consideration of the influence of Chris- 
tianity upon human nature. 

Unquestionably, one marked result of that 
copious effusion of the Holy Spirit, which 
beginning at Pentecost has continued until 
now, was a quickening of the human soul 
to a realization of its individuality. Fifteen 
centuries of sad experience and a convul- 
sion which disrupted Western Christendom 
were needed to bring any large portion of 
the Church to an appreciation of the privi- 
leges which inhere in this individualism. 
Since the great Reformation of the six- 
teenth century, men have come by freer 
study of the Bible to discern more clearly 
the possibilities which it teaches of personal 
consciousness of sonship, and of the indi- 
vidual possession by the Holy Spirit of every 
soul availing itself of the privilege ; although 
there have never been wanting those who 
have discerned the possibility of individual 
communion with the spiritual world. 

134 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

In individualism lurks a danger against 
which no revelation can absolutely secure us. 
I ma)^ transgress its prescribed limitations 
and become excessive. It may strive after 
independence from its Creator and put forth 
its hands to forbidden fruit. It may assume 
prerogatives which the divine Being reserves 
to himself. It may substitute its own im- 
aginings and volitions for voices of God, 
and displace that real spirituality which 
only the Holy Ghost can create with an 
auto-spiritualism which is deceptive, illus- 
ory, and specious, the precursor of spiritual 
and intellectual anarchy. 

Our Lord gave w^arning of this peril when, 
predicting the trials which should come, he 
said, '' There shall arise false Christs, and 
false prophets, and shall show great signs 
and wonders; insomuch that, if it were 
possible, they shall deceive the very elect.'' 
Paul foresaw it, saying to the Ephesian 
elders, ' ' Of your own selves shall men arise, 
speaking perverse things, to drawaway 
disciples after them." It was this which 
led John to write, '' Believe not every spirit, 
but try the spirits whether they are of God : 
because many false prophets are gone out 
into the world." 

135 



Revelation of Saint John 

The writer of the Revelation had no need 
to go beyond his own memory to find symp- 
toms of this spirit. Already it had begun 
to manifest itself in the apostolic Church. 
Simon Magus was a conspicuous but not 
solitary example. In the epistles to the 
seven churches there are cautions against 
**the Nicolaitans " and *'the woman Jeze- 
bel, which calleth herself a prophetess/' 
very distinct from those which denounce 
the pleasures or the persecutionsof the 
world. In the ante-Nicene age gnosticism, 
with its pretensions to a theosophy more 
profound, a knowledge more extensive and 
exact, a code of ethics more consistent, 
and a self-denial more rigid than those of 
the faithful, was a more dangerous ad- 
versary than the Roman empire; and we 
who appreciate the skillfulness of its spe- 
cious arguments realize that nothing but 
the providence of God carried the artless and 
unsuspicious Church safely through the 
peril. ^ And throughout the ages since 
there has been a continuous reappearance 
of this spirit, sometimes within, sometimes 

* Bigg, Christian Platonists ofAiexand7'ia, Bampton Lec- 
tures, 1886, lecture i, p. 35 ; Harnack, History of Dogma, 
book i, chapt. iv. 

136 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

outside the Church ; not always avowedly 
antagonistic to Christianity, but assuming 
to be a more perfect form of it ; not im- 
pugning the authority of the Scriptures, 
but claiming to possess deeper views of 
their esoteric meaning ; not openly subvert- 
ing the foundations of morals, but supersed- 
ing them by a show of a more austere and 
uncompromising sanctimoniousness. It so 
puts on the appearance of a lamb that its 
dragon nature is hard to detect. It has 
cropped out in Manichaeism, in Paulician- 
ism, in Albigensianism, among hermits and 
pillar saints, among pietists, mystics, oc- 
cultists, and other professors of a strained 
and exalted perfection and illumination to 
which only the elect initiate can aspire, 
and from which the common masses of be- 
lievers are excluded. 

It is hard to describe this spirit by a sin- 
gle name. It wears so many forms that no 
one word can comprehend all of them. 
Even the apostolic pen failed to depict this 
adversary clearly or sketch its outline with 
distinctness. Deceit seemxS to be the per- 
vading and controlling element of its being, 
and to affect both substance and form. But 
it has as its usual accompaniment one mark 

137 



Revelation of Saint John 

which it stamps upon its devotees — a scru- 
pulous and rigid asceticism which deludes 
itself with the hope of emancipation from 
the necessary conditions of earthly life, 
which denounces as sinful things proper in 
themselves, simply because they are natural 
or secular, and which aims at the profitless 
and impracticable task of anticipating in 
this life the celestial state of disembodied 
spirits. No creature can ever with impu- 
nity contravene the laws imposed upon his 
nature. The abnormal and excessive de- 
velopment of one side of man's constitution 
is sure to involve a corresponding atrophy 
of some other side, and thus the sins ex- 
cluded by one system of defenses find en- 
trance through some other avenue left 
unguarded. And the constant result of 
asceticism has been in the end to revive 
with new power the worldliness it aimed to 
destroy ; so that in this sense the second 
beast gives ''life'' and breath *'unto the 
image" of the first. For the termination 
of all hyperspiritualism has been either in 
an arrogant self-exaltation, the very oppo- 
site of Christian humility and love, or in an 
antinomianism which, under the affectation 
of liberty, gives loose rein to sensualism. 

138 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

To the question, wliich thus becomes of 
vital importance, How shall we ''try the 
spirits'' to know ''whether they are of 
God'' ? John has elsewhere furnished a suf- 
ficient answer : ' ' Every spirit that conf ess- 
eth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is 
of God : and every spirit that conf esseth not 
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not 
of God : and this is that spirit of antichrist, 
whereof ye have heard that it should come ; 
and even now already is it in the world" 
(i Johniv, 2, 3). 

The central principle of all asceticism, in 
whatever form, and whether perceived and 
acknowledged or not, is that matter is 
essentially evil and spirit essentially good. 
It is in the contact of soul with body and of 
spirit with matter that sin lies. Holiness, 
therefore, means only the diminution or de- 
struction of this contact. All bodily desires, 
activities, and enjoyments, if they cannot 
be annihilated, must be reduced to the 
minimum, that thereby the ascendency of 
the spirit may be gained and maintained. 
Thus human nature is mutilated to half its 
capacities. Religion becomes only a " con- 
cision," not a process of transformation. 
The problem of redemption is no longer the 

139 



Revelation of Saint John 

moral one of the salvation of the soul from 
the guilt and pollution of sin, but the 
metaphysical one of the liberation of -the 
spirit from matter.^' By such as hold this 
view of things the assumption by the Son of 
God of the likeness of sinful flesh, his birth, 
his fellowship with earthly conditions and 
experiences, can never be fully accepted ; 
his crucifixion is attenuated into a figure of 
speech or becomes a mere parable, and 
cannot be the necessary means of our sal- 
vation. 

Against such a theory the Revelation is 
one long protest. Its keynote is salvation 
through '' the Lamb that was slain.'' Nor 
does anything prove so conclusively that 
John was the author of the Apocalypse as 
the fact that in it, in the fourth gospel, and 
in the epistles which bear his name, the 
central and fundamental truth was the 
same: '' The Word was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us ; '' and, ' ' This is he that came 
by water and blood, even Jesus Christ ; not 
by water only, but by water and blood. 
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, 
because the Spirit is truth.'' 

*Moller, History of the Christiait Churchy vol. i, pp. 1 52, 
153. New York, Sv/an Sonnenschein & Co., 1892. 

140 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

The acquisition of knowledge depends as 
much upon a right method as upon an ear- 
nest purpose. Alphabets must be mastered 
before sentences can be read. No one can 
understand the higher mathematics who 
has not been grounded in the fundamental 
axioms. And one of the axioms of the 
spiritual life is that the Holy Spirit cannot 
be given until Jesus is glorified (John vii, 
39). Whoever does not accept, with all im- 
plied therein, the exemplary earthly life and 
the atoning and sacrificial death of the Son 
of God may well pause to reflect whether the 
spirit which leads and moves him is indeed 
the Spirit of God, or whether it is not the 
spirit of evil and untruth. We may not set 
limits to the spiritual flights of which the 
soul is capable, but it must have a solid 
basis from which to start; otherwise it 
wastes its strength in aimless wanderings 
amid mazy fogs and vagaries. 

The path of truth lies between extremes, 
and from either side of the ridge along 
which it winds steep declines lead to danger- 
ous abysses. If a man, on the one hand, 
accepts to the full the reality of the incarna- 
tion of the Son of God, and then does not 
advance to thatother revealed truth, that the 

141 



Revelation of Saint John 

Holy Ghost is of equal power and divinity 
and that his mission is as wide in its range 
and as complete in its effects, religion will 
be to him a thing of externals, of outward 
and mechanical forms and rites. On the 
other hand, the ascetic who would aspire to 
the full heights of the revelation of the Holy 
Spirit without accepting what must precede 
success — the real humanity of our Lord, his 
cross, his grave, his resurrection — will 
surely miss the path and be lost in abstrac- 
tions, fanaticisms, delusion, and deceit. 

One last feature descriptive of the second 
beast remains to be considered — the number 
of his name. '' Let him that hath under- 
standing count the number of the beast : for 
it is the number of a man ; and his number 
is six hundred threescore and six.'' If 
John meant to cover a mystery he has cer- 
tainly succeeded, for no explanation has as 
yet been offered convincing enough to com- 
mand the acceptance of the Church. Un- 
questionably this is the most difficult to 
solve of all the problems of the book, and 
the apostle is thought to intimate this in 
saying, '' Here is wisdom; '' although possi- 
bly his meaning is that the special need for 
wisdom lies in defense against the wiles of 

142 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

this adversary, rather than in solving the 
mystery of his name. 

The interpretation which has met with 
the largest assent is based on the usage of 
employing the letters of the Greek and 
Hebrew alphabets as numerals. Men have 
attempted to discover some name the letters 
of which when added will give the nu- 
merical value six hundred and sixty-six. 
The name which has secured the largest 
number of advocates is Lateinos (Latin), 
which, written in Greek characters and 
numbered, gives six hundred and sixty-six. 
By Roman Catholic interpreters who accept 
this solution the empire of Rome is sup- 
posed to be meant; by Protestants, the 
Church of Rome. Dr. Adam Clarke thought 
this solution to ' ' amount nearly to demon- 
stration." 

In recent times many German and other 
scholars, mainly for reasons based on a 
special theory of the date of the Revela- 
tion, prefer the words Nero Caesar, which, 
written in Hebrew letters, number six hun- 
dred and sixty-six. Irenaeus (died about 
202), who attempted the problem, out of 
many names preferred Teitan, possibly to 
suggest an analogy between the attempts of 

143 



Revelation of Saint John 

Roman emperors to crush the Church and 
the unsuccessful war of the Titans against 
the gods, without venturing to put forth 
his opinions in more definite form. Very 
many other names of men, ancient and 
modern, have been proposed, with greater 
or less plausibility ; for curiosity to decipher 
numerical symbols, when it possesses a man, 
holds him with almost the fascination of 
gambling. But it is apparent that the 
combination of names possible with only a 
few letters is so much beyond computation 
that almost apostolical inspiration is requisite 
to decide upon the right one. 

To the word '' Lateinos,*' strong as are 
its claims, the objection lies that the Roman 
or Latin empire can scarcely be meant, 
since the beast John describes is evidently 
a spiritual power, not a secular one. Nor 
can the Roman Church be meant, for it was 
not known as Latin in the days of the apos- 
tle, nor for centuries afterward ; and, as one 
design of the Apocalypse was to comfort and 
instruct the generation in which John lived, 
it would have been inconsistent with that 
design to select a name which could have no 
meaning intelligible to it or to many gen- 
erations succeeding. There is wisdom in 

144 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

the words of Bleek:"^ '' The discovery that 
a definite name contains this number as the 
value of its letters in Greek would not war- 
rant us to assume the correctness of the in- 
terpretation if other hints in the book re- 
specting the beast did not agree." 

Another explanation offered is that the 
number six hundred and sixty-six is but a 
threefold repetition of the number six, John 
thus intending to mark in the most em- 
phatic manner that, however mighty the 
power or long the duration of the beast 
shall be, it will inevitably fall short of the 
completeness and permanence of Christ's 
kingdom, as six is less than seven. 

Still another explanation proposed is that 
the number was originally written with the 
Greek letters x^^ ; X being equal to six hun- 
dred, f to sixty, and r to six. As x {f^i) is 
the initial letter of Christ, ^ is supposed to 
be an emblem of Satan, being afterward so 
used by the Gnostics, and r is the initial 
of oravpbc;, cross. The symbol, it is said, 
refers to some Satanic power intervening 
between Christ and the cross, some system 
which honors him as teacher but denies 

'^Lectures on the Apocalypse^ p. 87. London, Vvllliams & 
Norgate, 1875. 

-lu 145 



Revelation of Saint John 

him as Saviour, which accepts Jesus, but 
not '' him crucified/* The description ac- 
cords well enough with that of the second 
beast ; but whether it can be extracted from 
the number six hundred and sixty-six is 
another question. The monogram, while 
harmonizing with the symbolism of the 
Apocalypse, and also delineating the nature 
of the beast, does not explain the em- 
phasis which seems to be laid upon his 
** name.'' 

There is, however, one detail in this part 
of the description of the beast often over- 
looked, but which may carry us far on our 
way to decipher the secret of the number. 
The number of the name is not monopolized 
by the beast ; it does not exhaust itself in 
any single individual. We are told that 
' ' no man might buy or sell, save he that had 
the mark, or the name of the beast, or the 
number of his name.'' The beast has fol- 
lowers who imbibe his spirit and partake of 
his characteristics, and to whom his name 
and number are equally appropriate. It is 
more in keeping with this statement, as well 
as with other details, to interpret the beast 
as a principle rather than a person, as be- 
ing some spirit of evil which, assuming 

146 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

prominence in some man or organization, 
is yet shared by many men and organi- 
zations. The avScetic, false prophetism 
which fulfills the other details of the de- 
scription coincides also with this. 

If, following out the rule of interpreta- 
tion which has guided us hitherto, and as- 
suming that John drew his prediction of 
the future from facts and tendencies exist- 
ing in his day, we read the epistles con- 
tained in chapters ii and iii, we shall find 
that among the perils which threatened the 
apostolic Church none w^as more imminent 
than that which is called ' ' the doctrine of 
the Nicolaitans/' which was but a repro- 
duction of the heresy of Balaam, the gifted 
and formidable rival and antagonist of 
Moses ; the name Nicolaus, indeed, meaning 
in Greek the same that Balaam does in 
Hebrew. So deep a mark did Balaam make 
that throughout the Old Testament, as well 
as the New, he stands as the representative, 
as he was the first example, of that spirit of 
false prophetism which, beginning as as- 
cetism, degenerates into antinomianism and 
prostitutes genius to the service of the flesh. 
Now, it is certainly true, as Ziillig shows,* 

'^Bleek, Lectures on the Apocalypse, p. 285. 
147 



Revelation of Saint John 

that the words '' Balaam, the son of Beor, 
soothsayer/' if written in Hebrew letters 
do make up the sum six hundred and 
sixty-six. It seems, therefore, probable 
that some embodiment of his insidious 
spirit, some reproduction of his deadly doc- 
trine, with its resultant lawless practices, is 
the solution of this mysterious symbol, the 
second beast, against which John earnestly 
warns the Church in all ages to guard itself 
as the most dangerous foe to the kingdom 
of Christ. And possibly the archaeological 
researches which are now bringing to light 
much of the hidden history of earlier ages 
may yet discover to us the sect which served 
as the basis of his warning. 

The interpretation which has here been 
put upon the symbols of the two wild 
beasts — namely, that they represent, the 
one the spirit of worldliness, the other 
that autospiritualism or self-centered piety 
which, for lack of a more comprehensive 
phrase, may be designated as false prophet- 
ism or false asceticism — derives some con- 
firmation from the fact that their resulting 
effects have been such as the author of the 
Revelation predicted. Worldliness seems 
the baser of the two, but its dominion is 

148 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

briefer and less stable. As the mind can 
never be content with agnosticism, .but mtist 
by necessity search, for some explanation of 
the mystery of being until satisfaction is 
gained, so the heart can never fully rest in 
hopes and themes and joys which are only 
earthly. The religious instincts inherent in 
and inalienable from our nature will assert 
themselves and cry for God. On the other 
hand, asceticism, while it seems to present 
a loftier ideal and holds men thereby with a 
more permanent grasp, is all the more bale- 
ful by reason of its deceptiveness. It veils 
pride, ambition, malice, selfishness, under 
the guise of superior sanctity, which, while 
imposing on others by its well-masked du- 
plicity, lulls its victims into almost hope- 
less slumber by its hypocrisy. Those 
whom it allures by its professions of su- 
perior piety it mocks with disappointing 
dreams. It is the dark shadow that always 
waits on holiness and liberty ; it is the 
special temptation that besets souls seeking 
after purity and knowledge ; while world- 
liness is that to which those are most prone 
who mingle much with the world and deal 
with earthly realities. If, on the one hand, 
it is easy for men to fall into the danger of 

149 



Revelation of Saint John 

using their heaven-given faculties for the 
ignoble purpose of gratifying their lower 
desires or of turning stones to bread simply 
that they may live, it is equally easy, on the 
other, to wander into the opposite error of 
presuming rashly upon God's ]3rovidence and 
mercy, although humility has degenerated 
into boasting and love has been perverted 
to censoriousness. From neither tendency 
can the regeneration of the world come; 
both are alike enemies of God and of man. 
4. Anticipations of Victory, — It is one of 
the characteristic peculiarities of St. John's 
literary style to introduce a subject which 
for the moment he merely suggests to our 
notice, returning to it subsequently in order 
that he may amplify and complete it. He 
goes over his work again and again, each 
time adding some new touch, with the pur- 
pose of bringing out in greater prominence 
some detail of his subject. While each sec- 
tion, therefore, contains in measure an 
epitome of the whole, in each one some 
single point is more specifically and elabo- 
rately discussed. There is, it is true, ad- 
vance of thought ; but the eagle of the apos- 
tolic band moves in circles, bringing into no- 
tice of his keen eye every part of the field over 

150 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

which he soars, while each swoop of his 
wing carries him a little beyond his former 
orbit, so that his progress is in spirals. The 
principle which controlled him seems to 
have been that of presenting to us in sharp 
and striking antithesis the contrasts between 
conflicting ideas, while he holds them under 
our observation. 

It is also characteristic of a disposition 
like St. John's, and of a life so contem- 
plative and secluded as his was, to view 
things in the light of their essential prin- 
ciples ; not as they become, modified by con- 
tact and in relation with each other, but 
as they radically and germinally are. By 
consequence such minds, instead of being 
occupied with the intermediate changes, 
pass at once to ultimate results and see the 
end in the beginning. 

An instance of this appears in the four- 
teenth chapter, which is really but an epi- 
logue to the preceding chapters. In the 
twelfth and thirteenth chapters we have 
had presented to our vision the for- 
midable enemies with which the Christian 
believer must struggle. They have been 
described most graphically and with a 
fullness of detail not subsequently ex- 

151 



Revelation of Saint John 

ceeded. The dramatis personce are all 
put upon the stage, and no new actors in 
the tragedy of existence need be expected. 
But these enemies are sufficiently numerous 
and terrible to excite apprehension and 
awaken earnest inquiries as to our means of 
resistance and possibilities of success. The 
seer, therefore, pauses for a moment to re- 
view the resources put within our reach 
and to assure us of their adequacy. 
''Greater is he that is in you,'' he says, 
'' than he that is in the world.'' And he 
fully indorses the emphatic declaration of 
Paul, ' ' The weapons of our warfare are not 
carnal, but mighty through God to the pull- 
ing down of strongholds." 

In prophesying victory over the dragon 
and the beasts to the saints of Christ, John 
separates them into two classes, as he had 
done in chapter vii. This is not in any 
spirit of Jewish narrowness or exclusive- 
ness. He had long gotten beyond that and 
learned to call no man com_mon whom God 
had cleansed. Even Paul, the apostle of the 
uncircumcision, recognized a distinction be- 
tween the Jew, who was first, and the Gen- 
tile ; so there can be alleged against John 
no bigotry in recognizing the distinction, 

152 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

inasmuch as he foreshadows equal victory 
to both classes. There can hardly be a 
question that by the ' ' hundred forty and 
four thousand '' John meant Israelites after 
the flesh; for they ''stood on the mount 
Sion ; '* they sang a song which none others 
but themselves could learn, namely, the 
song of Moses and of the Lamb (xv, 3) ; they 
were ' ' the first fruits unto God and to the 
Lamb " (xiv, 4) ; they were without ' ' guile,*' 
with reference no doubt to John i, 47. 
They were '' virgins,'' having the true as- 
ceticism — freedom from, ungodliness and 
worldly lusts. There was reason for rejoic- 
ing to a Jew like John in the fact that, in 
spite of the opposition of the rulers and 
Herods among the chosen people to whom 
had been committed the oracles of God, 
and on the very spots of the crucifixion 
and resurrection, so many of his former co- 
religionists had become disciples of Christ 
and followed the Lamb whithersoever he 
led them. 

But the word of God is not bound, nor is 
it the exclusive property of any race ; and 
the seer immediately adds the vision of the 
multitudes of " every nation, and kindred, 
and tongue, and people," to whom ''the 



Revelation of Saint John 

everlasting Gospel " was preached and 
among whom it found adherents. The 
fullness of the times had come, and Gentiles 
might ''fear God, and give glory to him," 
the one Creator of '' heaven, and earth, and 
the sea, and the fountains of w^aters/' 

One new feature is now introduced. 
Babylon, which occupies so much of the 
subsequent part of the Apocalypse, is here 
for the first time mentioned. Babylon, it 
will be attempted to show, is not another 
adversary, but an apostate Church which 
has succumbed to adversaries and thereby 
become a counterfeit and rival to Christian- 
ity. It is here brought upon the stage by 
anticipation, and its doom foretold, to give 
completer assurance of the coming victory 
over all forms and results of sin and evil. 

The age in which John lived was an age 
of martyrdom. How severely this fact 
tried ''the patience "and faith of the early 
Christians we know from hints in other 
apostolical writings. Paul found it neces- 
sary to show to his brethren in Rome that 
if they suffered with Christ it was that they 
might be also glorified together with him. 
Peter, too, comforts those whose faith was 
being so sorely tried with the assurance 

154 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

that the trial of their faith was ''more 
precious than of gold that perisheth/* and 
would be ''found unto praise and honor 
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ/* 
And so John gives to the Church of his day 
the glad tidings that, although God buries 
his workmen, he carries on his work; that 
they, if they died "in the Lord," should 
" rest from their labors; *' and that " their 
works" should survive and go on winning 
victories after their departure. 

If it should be asked how or with what 
weapons they were to overcome, John gives 
the answer which is found so often in the 
Book of Revelation that it is one of the keys 
to unlock its mysteries — they overcome 
' ' by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word 
of their testimony" (Rev. xii, ii); by 
which latter expression is meant, doubtless, 
the Scriptures, as explained in the chapter 
upon the two witnesses. That the two vis- 
ions which now follow, the harvest of the 
world and the vintage scene, refer to these 
two weapons of success furnishes an ex- 
planation of them so simple and easy that 
it is strange they should have occasioned 
so much difficulty to commentators. 

The prophet Joel, from whose writings 

155 



Revelation of Saint John 

these visions are drawn (Joel iii, 13), proba- 
bly among the earliest and certainly among 
the greatest of the Hebrew seers, appears 
to have been gifted with a foresight of the 
future remarkable even for one of that ex- 
traordinary body of men. The final and 
complete triumph of God's cause over all 
opposing foes in and through Zion, and the 
deliverance of the Church from all bondage, 
oppression, and danger, preceded by a 
plentiful outpouring of the Holy Spirit 
upon all classes, ages, and conditions, stood 
out before him as a certain and assured 
fact. The details of the methods by which 
this result was to be achieved were not re- 
vealed to him, nor is it surprising that, 
being thus left to himself, he could con- 
ceive of no other instrumentalities than 
those which in his experience of human 
affairs had passed under his own observa- 
tion. This is not the only instance in 
which the apostles of the New Testament, 
while confirming the prophets of the Old 
as to results, have discerned more clearly 
the power of spiritual forces, and for swords 
and carnal weapons and rods of iron have 
substituted the more peaceful instrumen- 
talities of the sword of the Spirit, the breath 

156 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

of the Messiah's lips, and the staff of the 
Good Shepherd. 

The writer of the Revelation, expanding 
and evangelizing the vision of Joel, saw ' ' a 
white clond," and One '' like unto the Son of 
man '' sitting thereon, '' having on his head 
a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp 
sickle/' ''Out of the temple" an angel 
came and cried to him, **Thrustin thy sickle, 
. . . for the harvest of the earth is ripe.'' 
Whereupon he cast his sickle upon the earth, 
and ** the earth was reaped." 

In these words surely a reference is to 
be seen to the words of our Lord himself ut- 
tered in the hearing of John and recorded 
in Matt, xxiv, 14, 30, 31 : ** And this Gos- 
pel of the kingdom shall be preached in all 
the world for a witness unto all nations ; and 
then shall the end come. . . . And they 
shall see the Son of man coming in the 
clouds of heaven with power and great 
glory. And he shall send his angels with a 
great sound of a trumpet, and they shall 
gather together his elect from the four 
winds, from one end of heaven to the other." 

This metaphor of the harvest as the re- 
sult of the sowing of God's word is one of 
the most common to be found in the Scrip- 



Revelation of Saint John 

tures. ''The sower soweth the word" 
(Mark iv, 14), or ''the word of the king- 
dom '* (Matt, xiii, 19), or " the word which 
by the Gospel is preached unto you'* (i 
Peter i, 25). " So is the kingdom of God, 
as if a man should cast seed into the ground ; 
and should sleep, and rise night and day, 
and the seed should spring and grow up, 
he knoweth not how. For the earth bring- 
eth forth fruit of herself [that is, auto- 
matically and spontaneously]. . . . But 
when the fruit is brought forth, immediately 
he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest 
is come *' (Mark iv, 26-29). 

That ' ' the word of God is quick and pow- 
erful*' (Heb. iv, 12); that it has God's life 
in it (John vi, 63) ; that it is the great weapon 
of warfare, defensive and offensive, to the 
Church and the believer ; that it is the in- 
corruptible seed by which men are born into 
the kingdom (i Peter i, 23); that it is the 
instrument whereby we are sanctified (John 
xvii, 17), is the concurrent declaration of 
the Scriptures themselves. That it is to be 
preached by apostles, prophets, pastors, and 
teachers is the commission binding on all : 
" Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
Gospel to every creature " (Mark xvi, 15). 

158 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

This Bible is sufficient of itself, all other 
things are only ancillary ; * * in due season we 
shall reap, if we faint not " (Gal. vi, 9). All 
literature and art and culture and science 
are but as '' the grass *' that '' withereth,'* 
or '*the flower '^ that ^^fadeth*/* *^but the 
word of our God shall stand forever." And 
the martyrs of the apostolical age had the 
inspired assurance of John to console them, 
that if they faithfully bore witness to the 
w^ord they might fall, but ''their works" 
would follow on after them. And in so 
saying he is only reechoing the words 
which he himself had heard from the Mas- 
ter, ''One soweth, and another reapeth " 
(John iv, 37). And John shows how com- 
pletely he had gotten away from Jewish 
narrowness and absorbed the Master's spirit, 
in his recognition of the fact that the Bible 
is for every nation and kindred and people. 

The other instrumentality of victory put 
within the reach of the Church, namely, 
the all-sufficient "blood of the Lamb," is 
beautifully illustrated in the vintage vision, 
which has most needlessly perplexed com- 
mentators. 

An angel — not now the Son of man — is 
seen coming ' ' out of the temple which is in 

159 



Revelation of Saint John 

heaven'* with a sharp sickle. Another 
angel came out from the altar, who is de- 
scribed as having ''power over fire'' (the 
same combination as is found in Isa. vi, 6), 
and at his cry the sickle was thrust into the 
earth, and the clusters of fully ripe grapes 
gathered and cast ' ' into the great wine 
press of the wrath of God." 

It is hardly possible to read these words 
without seeing in them a reference to Isa. 
Ixiii, 1-6. By the great mass of believers 
the words are interpreted as an allusion to 
and a prophecy of the atoning work of 
Christ. It certainly seems that the writer 
of the Revelation so understood them, not 
only from the connection of this vintage 
scene with the blood of the Lamb, but also 
from Rev. xix, 11-16, where the same con- 
nection of the two themes, the ''sharp 
sword " issuing from the mouth of Christ, 
that is, the word of God, and the "vesture 
dipped in blood," with the treading of the 
wine press, is found. 

Our belief in the plenary inspiration of 
the writers of the Scriptures does not com- 
pel us to the conviction that they always 
comprehended the full import of their mes- 
sage, or that all the particulars embraced 

160 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

therein stood out clearly and plainly in their 
minds. This is one of the instances in 
which prophets and wise men desired to see 
the things which we in the kingdom of 
Christ see, but did not see them. Every 
man in painting mental pictures must of 
necessity use colors with which his own 
mind is acquainted, and which he has ac- 
quired by experience and observation. And 
Isaiah and the other prophets, in the age 
and with the surroundings in the midst of 
which they lived, had no other means of 
conveying to the minds of men the true 
revelations which were given to them of the 
suffering and victorious Messiah than terms 
such as they saw exemplified in the world 
of history and in the men about them. Any 
other terms would have been incomprehen- 
sible, and so have failed of their purpose to 
help and inspirit. And the divinity of the 
Bible is seen conspicuously in this — that the 
framework in which its glorious pictures 
were set is capable of expansion to the 
times in which we live and the larger views 
we have, without fracture or distortion. 
The signs and symbols which by divine illu- 
mination were presented to them have come 
down to us ; but we, with the clearer light 

11 161 



Revelation of Saint John 

of tlie Sun of righteousness, can read intel- 
ligently what were hieroglyphics to them, 
and, looking with unveiled face, can behold 
therein the glory of God. That John, in 
thus quoting from Isaiah, has Calvary and 
Gethsemanein his thoughts is shown by his 
specifying particularly that ' ' the wine press 
was trodden without the city," bringing out 
the truth, of which Heb. xiii, 12, is the wit- 
ness, that '' Jesus also, that he might sanc- 
tify the people with his own blood, suffered 
without the gate." 

It is true that in the prophecy of Isaiah 
there appears an element of vengeance and 
wrath that does not comport with our ideas 
of salvation and redemption, and even re- 
pels. The element is still there ; but the 
New Testament teaches us that all that was 
lonely, painful, agonizing in human re- 
demption was borne by the Christ for us. 
We are *^ bought with a price," but he paid 
it. He was ''made a curse for us." He 
' ' bare our sins in his own body on the tree, " 
and by his ''stripes "we are "healed." 
However feeble may be the traces of vica- 
riousness in nature, human life is full of it, 
is built about it. All love is manifested in 
vicarious suffering. Scarce any rise but 

162 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

that some fall ; scarce any become rich but 
that others become poor ; there is hardly a 
smile or a laugh of joy for which some pain 
is not felt or some tear not shed somewhere. 
And, if God manifests his love by sending 
' ' his Son to be the propitiation for our 
sins," this is but an illustration of the truth, 
as apparent in the spiritual world as in that 
of nature, of the transmutation of forces ; 
the sum not being increased or diminished, 
but the places and modes of manifestation 
changing. 

The remainder of the vintage scene may 
be easily explained, difficult as it has 
seemed to most interpreters, by applying 
the key which is put into our hands, if we 
accept the solution offered above. 

We must now for almost the first time 
take up the prophecy of Ezekiel, which 
from this place onward almost singly rules 
the Apocalypse, and the careful study of 
which will throw light upon what seems 
most obscure. 

We are told that ' ' blood came out of the 
wine press, even unto the horse bridles, by 
the space of a thousand and six hundred 
furlongs." 

Turning to Ezekiel, we find that the last 

163 



Revelation of Saint John 

chapters of that great prophecy are taken 
up with a beautiful description, ideal and 
figurative, doubtless, of the restored temple, 
holy city, and land of the new Israel of 
God. In the forty-seventh chapter of 
Ezekiel the dimensions of this ideal land 
are very carefully stated. The boundary 
line of it was, on the north side, Hamath, 
in latitude thirty-four degrees twenty min- 
utes, and, on the south, a line drawn from 
Tamar, at the southern border of the Dead 
Sea, to Kadesh, a brook emptying into the 
Mediterranean. If, now, we measure on a 
map the distance between these lines, we 
shall find it to be two hundred miles, or six- 
teen hundred furlongs. 

This whole space, comprehending all of 
the Holy Land, was thus entirely cov- 
ered with the blood which flowed from the 
wine press trodden b}^ the Son of God. 
Could there be a more complete statement 
of the all-sufficiency of that atoning blood? 
It is the same truth presented to us here 
which John has elsewhere in plainer prose 
revealed to our faith : ' ' The blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.'* 

And as if still further to verify the state- 
ment he tells us that the blood reached to 

164 



The Foes of the Kingdom 

'' the horse bridles." There is an allusion 
in this to Zech. xiv, 20, where we are told 
that in '' the day of the Lord" there shall 
be ' ' upon the bells [or, as the margin has 
it, ' upon the bridles '] of the horses, Holi- 
ness unto the Lord." The ideal land is not 
only covered in its whole extent with the 
atoning blood, but so deep is the stream 
that it buries all beneath it, except where 
upon the surface is displayed the significant 
inscription, ''Holiness unto the Lord." 
Surely there is no lack in the provisions of 
salvation. ''Where sin abounded, grace 
did much more abound : that as sin hath 
reigned unto death, even so might grace 
reign through righteousness unto eternal 
life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." 

Thus, then, in these beautiful visions is 
it shown that the believer and the Church 
are sufficiently armed for the encounter 
with any antagonist, however furious or 
formidable. We are supplied with "the 
sword of the Spirit " and " the blood of the 
Lamb." Whatever the tasks maybe that 
lie before us, having these, we have all 
necessary equipment. Nothing shall be 
able to harm us so long as we continue to 
be followers of God. 

165 



Revelation of Saint John 

If the harvest scene illustrates the extent 
of divine grace, and is an emblem of the 
living seed which, small in its beginnings, 
grows into a great and widespreading tree 
tinder whose branches all the nations of 
earth may find shelter and rest, the vintage 
scene illustrates the depth to which salva- 
tion penetrates. The whole extent of 
human need is reached. Neither is there a 
want anywhere which may not be satisfied. 
And through the use of the divinely ap- 
pointed means the kingdom of Christ may 
be brought to its ideal of perfection, in us 
and in the whole Church, until God shall, 
indeed, be all and in all. 

166 



PART V 

Ube Counterfeit of tbe iRing&om, or tbe 
jfalse Cburcb 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 



PART V 

The Counterfeit of the Kingdom, or the False 

Church 

The section of the Revelation which we 
now reach, and which extends from chapter 
XV to the close of chapter xix, may be 
called the judgment section. There is a 
striking parallelism between it and part iii, 
or the vision of the trumpets, which sym- 
bolizes the methods through which the king- 
dom of Christ is furthered. As that section 
divided itself into two parts — first, the nat- 
ural agencies which divine Providence em- 
ploys, and, next, the supernatural word — 
so, also, this sets before us what may be 
designated natural judgments, and then 
those special visitations of divine justice 
which await an apostate Christian or Church. 

I. Tlie Judgments of God. Vision of the 
Vials. — The fifteenth and sixteenth chapters 
need not detain us long, inasmuch as the 
resemblance between them and the visions of 
the trumpets is so great that much of what 
might be said has already been anticipated. 
Vials, or basins rather, were vessels used 
in the Mosaic ritual as receptacles. The 

169 



Revelation of Saint John 

term is used here to designate the judg- 
ments which must fall on men if the warn- 
ings and messages symbolized by the 
trumpets are unheeded. The Gospel, we 
are told by St. Paul, may be a savor of 
death unto death, as well as of life unto life. 
The words of the Lord Jesus will either be- 
come spirit and life to us, or they will judge 
us at the last day. 

From ' ' the temple of the tabernacle of 
the testimony'' ''seven angels '' are seen 
issuing forth with vials containing ' ' the 
seven last plagues.'' The w^ord for 
'' plague " is the same used in chapter xiii, 
3. It was there applied to a temporary 
wound which was quickly healed. Its con- 
nection here with the word '' last " and with 
the number ''seven" indicates that the 
wounds or blows are final and incurable. 
The judgments are not corrective and 
disciplinary, but retributive and irrevers- 
ible. 

The angels with the plagues issue from 
the temple of the tabernacle of the testi- 
mony. This name is that which is ap- 
plied to the structure Moses erected in the 
wilderness and which contained the ark of 
the testimony. Its use here implies that 

170 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

the judgments that follow are to be found 
recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures. 
The old word is God*s faithful witness, 
bearing plain testimony to his righteous- 
ness and to his anger at sin and iniquity. 

Still further, it was one of the four beasts, 
or living creatures, who put the vials into 
the hands of the angels ; and, as the four 
beasts are supposed to be symbolical repre- 
sentations of the animate creation, the truth 
declared would seem to be that these judg- 
ments come as natural providences, or by 
the operation of laws which the divine 
Being has stamped on his creation. 

The plagues fall successively upon the 
same places that are named in the parallel 
vision of the trumpets — the first upon the 
earth ; the second, upon the sea ; the third, 
upon the rivers and fountains of waters ; 
the fourth, upon the sun ; the fifth , upon 
the throne of the beast, darkening his king- 
dom ; the sixth, upon the Euphrates. 

It is very instructive to contrast these 
judgments with the beautiful figures by 
which John, in the last chapters of the Reve- 
lation, seeks to portray the glorious privi- 
leges and blessings of the perfected king- 
dom of Christ. 

m 



Revelation of Saint John 

Thus, in opposition to the ' ' noisome and 
grievous sore" that fell ''upon the men 
v^hich had the mark of the beast," we have, 
in chapter xxii, 2, the declaration that '* the 
leaves of the tree" of life '' were for the 
healing of the nations." 

In opposition to ''the sea" which "be- 
came as the blood of a dead man," we are 
told, in chapter xxi, i, that "there was no 
more sea." 

As a contrast to ' ' the rivers and foun- 
tains of waters" which "became blood," 
we are told in chapter xxii, i, of " the pure 
river of the water of life, clear as crystal." 

Over against " the sun " which " scorched 
men with great heat," the statement is 
made, in chapter xxi, 23, that " the city- 
had no need of the sun, neither of the 
moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God 
did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light 
thereof." 

And, while judgment fell on the throne 
of the beast, " and his kingdom was full of 
darkness, and they gnawed their tongues 
for pain," we learn of the new city that 
' ' the throne of God and of the Lamb shall 
be in it; and his servants shall serve him." 
"And there shall be no night there ; . . . for 

172 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

the Lord God giveth them light : and they 
shall reign forever and ever/' There seems 
to be in this a reminiscence of the plague 
of darkness with which the Almighty visited 
Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and which was 
the last one before the final stroke of his 
judgment upon the firstborn (Exod. x, 
21-23). 

The fifth trumpet was interpreted as a 
prophecy of the blindness, both of heart and 
mind, which comes upon men when faith 
declines and grace wanes. This interpreta- 
tion appears to be confirmed by the judgment 
which the plague of the fifth vial inflicts. 

The locality of the sixth plague is the 
Euphrates. This river, as has been pre- 
viously said, was the boundary line between 
civilization and barbarism. The mention 
of it implies that the last conflict in which 
the kingdom of Christ shall engage will be 
waged to oppose an inroad or outburst of 
barbarism. But as John presents this mat- 
ter with fuller details in chapter xx the 
discussion of it will be postponed until that 
part of the Revelation is reached. 

One new feature, w^hich is introduced for 

the first time in connection with the sixth 

vial, is the singular sentence, *^That the 

lis 



Revelation of Saint John 

way of the kings of the east might be pre- 
pared." The origin of this expression is to 
be found in Isa. xli, 2, to which it has doubt- 
less a reference. In that passage, * * the right- 
eous man from the east " to whom is given 
'' rule over kings" is, undoubtedly, Cyrus, 
whose advent and success are thus foretold. 
And the meaning is that, as out of heathen- 
ism God raised up that marvelous man as 
an instrument to accomplish his purposes 
in the deliverance of his people, so there is 
such fullness of resources in the reach of 
divine power that in any emergency or peril 
he is able to find, anywhere, means to rescue 
his followers or his Church out of danger. 
Moreover, the apostle saw coming ''out 
of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the 
mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of 
the false prophet" ''three unclean spirits 
like frogs." Over against the divine 
Trinity, the kingdom of darkness and sin 
has its counterfeit trinity. Each of its com- 
ponent persons has its emissaries and mes- 
sengers. For the final conflict all these will 
summon their entire resources. Behind all 
attempts to foil and defeat the development 
and perfection of the kingdom of Christ lie 

these evil powers. But their efforts v/ill be 

IH 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

futile ; inevitable destruction and doom 
await them ; and the inspired seer here 
merely suggests the judgment of which 
full particulars are to be subsequently given. 
2. Babylon and its Doo7n. — No part of the 
Apocalypse has given rise to so much con- 
troversy as that which now engages our at- 
tention ; and as, unhappily, the controver- 
sies have often originated in denominational 
prejudices and intensified denominational 
bitterness, this section has been made a shib- 
boleth by which to test conflicting creeds. 
Truth is, indeed, of paramount obligation. 
We have no right to accept or reject inter- 
pretations of the Scriptures simply on the 
ground that they accord with or are repug- 
nant to our beliefs. It is no part of our 
prerogative to sit in judgment upon the 
word of God or to force it to speak accord- 
ing to our mind. And nothing is ever really 
consistent with love which is not consistent 
with truth. If, however, the purpose of 
this remarkable book is to set before us 
those spiritual forces which work in the 
heart of every individual, as well as in col- 
lective masses, there seems no valid reason 
why we should in this part of it depart from 
those general principles upon which it is 

175 



Revelation of Saint John 

elsewhere framed, or seek for latent mean- 
ings when one which lies on the surface is 
capable of explaining and harmonizing its 
mysteries. 

Are we to understand by Babylon the 
Church of Rome, or the Roman Empire, 
or any specific body or association of men, 
religious or secular? Is the revelation here 
given us an anticipatory epitome of history, 
a foreshadowing of events that have already 
transpired and are now recorded among the 
annals of the race? Is it a prophecy the 
fulfillment of which can be known only by 
learned scholars acquainted with history, 
upon whose information the wayfaring man 
and the untutored disciple of Christ must 
depend? Is it a portion of Holy Writ 
whose best commentators must be found in 
Gibbon and Hume and such like unbeliev- 
ers? Truly, then, Saul is ''among the 
prophets;" and this book is singular and 
anomalous among the revelations of God, 
whose purpose has ever been to make wise 
the vSimple, who else would be cut off from 
access to the sources of truth and light. 

If any of the prophecies of this book can 
be proven to find their exhaustive fulfill- 
ment in any particular and definite body, 

176 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

individual, or event, so that when we have 
identified the body or individual or event we 
have reached the whole purpose of the 
writer, then, of course, its value as inspira- 
tion ceases or, at least, is materially dimin- 
ished. It may have an archaeological 
interest as a record of past conditions, but 
its influence upon the present and future 
is somewhat like that of a fossil upon living 
types. 

When the prophets of the old dispensa- 
tion uttered their denunciations of the 
luxuries, the sensualism, the cruelty, the 
gilded vices, or the coarser sins of the cities 
and empires of the ancient world their pur- 
pose was not to vent vindictiveness against 
conquerors under whose might the Israel of 
God was oppressed and trampled down, 
but to direct thought and attention to a 
spirit of evil, a principle of the kingdom of 
darkness, which for a while found an em- 
bodiment therein, yet was not wholly com- 
prehended in it. The empires crumbled 
into dust, the great capitals became masses 
of decaying ruins, but the spirit w^hich ani- 
mated them lived on, surviving their de- 
struction. 

Such was, doubtless, the design of this 

12 111 



Revelation of Saint John 

Apocalyptic vision. Babylon is a symbol 
of something that has its fulfillment again 
and again, but is never exhausted in any 
manifestation. The generations of men, 
down to the close of time, must watch for 
and be warned against the spirit which it 
embodied, and every individual Christian, 
as well as the Church at large, needs the 
caution which is here given him against 
such forms of it as are likely to tempt him 
from the path of duty or safety. 

Of all the hostile powers with which the 
Hebrew people were brought into contact 
and from whom they suffered Babylon 
seems to have been the most dreaded, and 
the animosity expressed toward it by the 
prophets was emphatic and marked. Its 
approaching doom evoked no sentiment of 
pity, but was hailed with unmingled satis- 
faction. What there was about Babylon 
which justified such exceptional fear and 
dislike it is, perhaps, not possible for us fully 
to understand, although we may attain some 
appreciation of it. 

Regarding Nineveh, we have reason to 
conjecture that its peculiarity was intense 
and supreme secularism. No temple has 
been found amid its ruins that was not 

178 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

merely the adjunct of a palace. The priest 
was the servant of the king. All religious 
instincts and institutions were simply tools 
which the haughty monarch unscrupulously 
used to carry out his cruel and ambitious 
projects. Such a condition of things can 
never endure long. It works its own de- 
struction, finding its cure within itself. It 
was the demoralization resulting from a simi- 
lar condition which sapped the strength of 
the Greek Empire of Byzantium and, by 
isolating it from all allies or sympathy, led 
to its overthrow. 

In Egypt the spheres of the State and of 
the Church maintained some independence 
of each other. Vast as was the sovereignty 
of the Pharaohs, it was not such as to en- 
croach upon or absorb the functions of the 
priestly caste. 

In Babylon, however, still another con- 
dition prevailed. Here the priesthood was 
the ruling order; the religious element 
dominated the secular. The palace was a 
part of the temple. It is noticeable how 
strongly in the prophetic descriptions of 
Babylon the Chaldean element is empha- 
sized. It is styled ''the beauty of the 
Chaldees' excellency,*' '*the land of the 

119 



Revelation of Saint John 

Chaldeans," marking thus the supremacy 
of that order of soothsayers, sorcerers, and 
professors of magic and occult science. 
Babylon was a theocracy, but the god who 
ruled it was the prince of darkness, not Je- 
hovah. The Church governed the State, 
but the Church was one that incarnated the 
spirit of worldly-mindedness, not heavenly- 
mindedness. So that, in an altogether pe- 
culiar and special sense, it was the rival and 
counterfeit of the true Church of God, 
giving exercise to the religious instincts of 
men sufficient to satisfy conviction and 
quiet conscience, while debasing them by 
turning them into the channels of lust and 
sensual gratification. 

Yet, as a matter of fact, the domination 
of Babylon proved less hurtful to the Jewish 
nation than did the hostility of any other of 
their great enemies. The form of world- 
liness which the Israelites encountered in 
Egypt was such as almost to make them 
forget their bondage in remembering the 
enjoyments they had found there. Their 
actual experience in Babylon during the 
years of their captivity, the lessons they 
learned and the comparisons they drew 
when brought into personal relationship 

180 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

with its life, left no lingering love of idola- 
try and cured them forever of any desire to 
worship its gods. 

But the Babylon of the book of Revela- 
tion comprehends more than the Babylon 
of the Hebrew prophets. The dangers 
which beset the Christian would be far less 
than they are if the Babylon of this w^orld, 
which opposes itself as a rival to the king- 
dom of Christ, had no fascinations beyond 
those which the great city by the Euphrates 
could offer. The wily enemy of mankind 
is too subtle to depend upon any such 
powers of attractiveness as were embodied 
in the capital of the Chaldean Empire. And 
in describing the counterfeit of the king- 
dom of Christ the writer of the Apocalypse 
adds to his portrait of Babylon features 
which are used by Ezekiel as characteristic 
of another great capital, Tyre. Babylon 
was never a center of commerce ; in no sense 
could it be described as a city whose mer- 
chants were princes. The same is also true 
of Rome, and is thus adverse to the opinion 
that John meant to describe the city of the 
Caesars and of the popes. His delineation 
of Babylon would apply to Corinth or Car- 
thage in ancient times, and to Venice or 

181 



Revelation of Saint John 

Amsterdam or London in more modern 
days, with greater aptness than to the 
metropolis on the Tiber. In this altera- 
tion of the emblem in which the writer of 
the Revelation indulges, in the blending and 
interweaving of details descriptive of both 
the Babylon and the Tyre of the Old Tes- 
tament into the composite figure of the 
Apocalyptic Babylon, in the transition 
from Isaiah's sublimely ironical shout of 
triumph over the metropolis by the Eu- 
phrates to Ezekiel's sad and pathetic dirge 
over the fall of the commercial emporium 
of Phoenicia, a clew is given us to the inter- 
pretation of his meaning. 

The influence of Tyre upon the Hebrew 
people and religion was always deleterious, 
almost disastrous. The intercourse which 
began in the magnificent vSolomon*s love 
of show and splendid state and luxury, and 
which was increased by the intermarriage 
of the royal houses of Ahab and Jehoshaphat 
with Tyrian princesses, was fruitful of 
moral degeneration. From the spiritual 
pesthouse upon the Mediterranean came, 
first, Tyrian art, then, Tyrian wares, then, 
Tyrian idols, and, then, the unbridled and 
lawless sensualities for which Tyre was noto- 

182 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

rious, until Baal had displaced the golden 
calves set up by Jeroboam in Bethel and had 
well-nigh overthrown the altars of Jehovah 
in the city of the great King. 

The Babylon which John saw and whose 
rise and fall he predicts was one that em- 
braced in itself the unbounded pride, the 
self-sufficingness, the love of sorceries and 
dark arts of magic, along with the demoral- 
izing practices of a great mart of commerce 
— a mongrel figure into which all forms of 
evil and sin were woven. 

The probability, therefore, is that John 
meant to describe, not any individual or 
definite city or Church, but the incarnation 
of a spurious and apostate Christianity 
which, assuming the appearance of the 
true, is animated by principles wholly des- 
titute of and antagonistic to the power and 
life of Christianity, and thus deludes only 
to destroy. 

This opinion derives confirmation from 
the connection in which the section stands. 
Up to this point the writer of the Revela- 
tion has been collecting his data, so to 
speak, summing up the elementary forces, 
friendly and hostile, which have to do w4th 
the success or failure of the kingdom of 

183 



Revelation of Saint John 

Christ. He has announced its fundamental 
principles, the means by whicli it is to be 
carried forward, the enemies which must 
be encountered. It now remains for him 
to show in a concrete form the results. At 
the close of the Revelation he shows us the 
result of success in that exquisite picture of 
the ideal true Christianity. But before 
doing this he also shows the result of fail- 
ure in the picture of the ideal false Chris- 
tianity. The antitheses between the two 
are drawn out in sharp contrasts. 

In chapter xxi, 9, it is said to him, 
'' Come hither, I will show thee the bride, 
the Lamb*s wife.'* Here (xvii, i) it is said 
to him, ^* Come hither: I will show unto 
thee the judgment of the great whore that 
sitteth upon many waters.*' 

In chapter xxi, 6, it is written, '' He said 
unto me. It is done.'* So here (chapter xvi, 
17), when the seventh angel poured out his 
vial a voice was heard crying, ** It is done.*' 

In chapter xii, where for the first time the 
field of battle is described and the enumera- 
tion of the hostile forces is begun, religion 
is presented to us under the figure of a 
woman who has fled to the wilderness. 
Since then the trial is supposed to have been 

184 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

gone through with, the long war has been 
fought, the varying moments of the strug- 
gle have been detailed, and we are now 
brought to the summing up of the issue. 

In chapter xxi, lo, John is carried away 
'' in the spirit to a great and high moun- 
tain," and there is shown him the woman 
in the form of '' that great city," '' the holy 
city, new Jerusalem, coming down from 
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride 
adorned for her husband" (verse 2). Here 
(xvii, 3, 4) he is carried away ''in the spirit 
into the wilderness, " and he sees the woman ; 
but now she is sitting ' ' upon a scarlet- 
colored beast, full of names of blas- 
phemy, . . . arrayed in purple and scarlet 
color, and decked with gold." She has failed 
in the conflict. She has not come victorious 
out of the wilderness, as Christ did after 
his temptation. She has made peace with 
her enemies. She has joined with the 
flesh, the world, and the devil. She is no 
longer spotless and pure, ready for her 
bridal with the Lamb, but has become a 
harlot. 

Thus, once, Orpah and Ruth stood to- 
gether by the side of Naomi, while the 
Holy Land beckoned them all toward it. 

185 



Revelation of Saint John 

Ruth chose that better part and, sheltered 
beneath the hovering wings of the God of 
Israel, found peace and rest and an eternal 
portion with the saints; but Orpah loved 
the blue hills of Moab and, though sadly 
and reluctantly, turned back to idolatry and 
oblivion and spiritual death. 

Such a conflict awaits us all ; and the 
issue must be, either that happy one here- 
after to be more accurately described under 
the figure of the New Jerusalem, or else that 
alliance with the powers of darkness which 
John records in the emblem of Babylon. 

The details of the description given of 
Babylon add further confirmation to the 
explanation offered above. In chapters xii 
and xiii the three great enemies of the 
kingdom of Christ were enumerated — the 
dragon and his emissaries, the two beasts. 
In the present chapter (xvii) they are repre- 
sented as combined. The woman is seen 
sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast. She 
is arrayed in purple and scarlet, but not in 
'' fine linen,*' which is " the righteousness 
of saints.'' She has in her hand a cup, but 
instead of the sacramental blood of the 
Lamb, it is full of ' ' abominations and filthi- 
ness of her fornication." She is not ' ' filled 

186 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

with the Spirit," but ''drunken with the 
blood of the saints," for ''she hath cast 
down many wounded, yea, many strong- 
men have been slain by her " (Prov. vii, 26). 
It will be remembered that, in the de- 
scription of the first wild beast, it is said 
that when the deadly wound which it had 
received was healed the whole world won- 
dered after it in astonishment at the recu- 
perative power which it exhibited. But, 
.at this vision of the woman allied with the 
beast, with a commingling of the influence 
of the second wild beavSt, even John him- 
self wondered with great wonder at a cor- 
ruption of religion so complete and yet so 
enticing, a perversion so unexpected and 
yet so alluring, a transformation so plausi- 
bly and artfully accomplished. There seems 
to have been awakened in him something 
of the perplexity he had experienced in 
looking at the second wild beast, as if its 
duplicity were a mystery of iniquity beyond 
his power to fathom. Once one of the 
psalmists wondered, as he tells us, at the 
prosperity of the wicked, until he entered 
the sanctuary and there saw their latter end 
foreshadowed. So, likewise, was the mind 
of John relieved by the angel who came to 

18^7 



Revelation of Saint John 

him and said, '' I will tell thee the mystery 
of the woman, and of the beast that car- 
rieth her; " for as the curtain was lifted 
the doom of Babylon was revealed to him 
and the mystery was solved. 

But, however plain the mystery was to 
him, it is assuredly not equally so to us. 
The explanation which suggests itself to us 
the most readily is not necessarily the most 
correct one; indeed, the words, '' Here is 
the mind which hath wisdom,'' seem to in- 
dicate otherwise and to force us to seek 
some meaning deeper than that which is 
most obvious. Although, therefore, the 
expression, ''The seven heads are seven 
mountains, on which the w^oman sitteth,'' 
apparently identifies Babylon with Rome, 
either imperial or papal, it would satisfy all 
the conditions of the problem as well, and 
be more in harmony with the principles on 
which the Revelation is constructed, to in- 
terpret the expression as referring to the 
great world empires which have successively 
dominated the human race and cast their 
shadows across the path of centuries, and in 
which John saw the embodiment of the 
world-principle, essentially and perpetually 
antagonistic to the kingdom of Christ. 

188 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

Of these world empires five had already- 
fallen — Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Macedo- 
nia, and the empire of Alexander's suc- 
cessors. The empire of Rome, which was 
the one existent in John's days and the 
most compact and formidable of them all, 
was the sixth. ^' The other," he says, '' is 
not yet come ; and when lie cometh, he 
must continue a short space." Of this dif- 
ficult passage many explanations have been 
offered, but it cannot be said that they are 
satisfactory. Whether John anticipated the 
fall of the Roman Empire and the estab- 
lishment of another world empire to suc- 
ceed it for a brief period of time we are not 
able to say. 

It would not be any impeachment of the 
inspiration of the apostles to admit that upon 
matters relating to the time of our Lord's 
coming they were not able to predict with 
certainty. Christ himself said that ' ' of 
that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not 
the angels which are in heaven, neither the 
Son, but the Father;" and we cannot con- 
cede that his disciples were more fully en- 
lightened than he. There are indications 
that the apostles anticipated the personal 
manifestation of the Master at a date earlier 

189 



Revelation of Saint John 

than has proven to be the fact, because, 
looking through the ages, mountains ap- 
peared in their vision to blend into one 
which we have found by experience to be 
separated by valleys deep and wide. 

But, inasmuch as it was revealed to John 
that prior to the realization of the ideal 
kingdom of Christ there is to be a decisive 
conflict with the combined powers of evil, 
as will be more fully discussed when we 
shall have reached the twentieth chapter of 
the book, may it not be that it is that final 
embodiment of the world-principle whicli 
he here foretells as the seventh antagonistic 
kingdom ? 

''And the beast that was, and is not, 
even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, 
and goeth into perdition/' These words 
seem to imply that this '' eighth '' is not a 
separate and distinct empire, but is that 
common principle of worldliness which finds 
its embodiment in all the seven and yet is 
distinct and separable from them. It is 
both immanent in them and transcendental 
to them. 

And there is, perhaps, here an intended 
and striking contrast between this evil prin- 
ciple and the divine Being with whom it 

190 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

assumes to contest supremacy. It was said 
of the Lord God Almighty, in the adora- 
tion of the living creatures (Rev. iv, 8), 
that he '' was, and is, and is to come/' Of 
this counterfeit principle of evil it must be 
said, '' It was, and is not/' God is true, 
real, the same to-day as yesterday and for- 
ever. He that hath received Christ's tes- 
timony can set his seal to this assured and 
blessed certainty. Of the evil principle it 
can only be said that it is always vanity, 
falsehood, a lie. Its past is all a bitter re- 
membrance ; its future a shadow, a decep- 
tion, a dream; and he that trusts it is a fool 
mocked with illusions that are never real- 
ized and cheated with hopes that forever 
disappoint. 

It is not likely that any world-kingdom 
comparable in extent and power with those 
which in ancient times subjugated mankind 
will ever be seen again. Christianity de- 
velops and cultivates a spirit of individual- 
ism which is inimical to their recurrence. 
Since the disappearance of the Roman Em- 
pire no successor to it has arisen. The 
empires of Charlemagne and Napoleon were 
narrow and petty in comparison with that 
of the Caesars. Some such thought appears 

191 



Revelation of Saint John 

to have been in the mind of John when he 
foretold that there shall be ' ' ten kings, 
which have received no kingdom as yet; 
but receive power as kings one hour with 
the beast." 

But the spirit of evil which finds tem- 
porary embodiment in these worldly sov- 
ereignties does not disappear with their 
overthrow. It incarnates itself in other 
and more dangerous forms. There are 
subtle and cunning manifestations of this 
spirit which, by plausible and enticing imi- 
tations of the religion of Christ, do far more 
than any worldly kingdom can to overthrow 
true Christianity and substitute in its place 
the counterfeit kingdom, the deadly rival 
which is designated by the emblem of 
Babylon. 

Without violating the spirit of charity, 
and in fealty to the obligation of truth, it 
must be confessed that the history of the 
Church of Rome has too often furnished 
just occasion for its identification with the 
Babylon of the iVpocalypse. Its worldli- 
ness, its unscrupulous alliances with kings 
and princes to carry out its ambitious proj- 
ects, its disregard of moral obligations in 
the pursuit of its policy, its ignoring of the 

192 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

demands of justice, honor, truth and mercy, 
its persistent struggle to achieve and main- 
tain temporal supremacy, its awful claim of 
present and eternal mastery over the bodies, 
minds, and souls of men, its luxury and 
Avantonness, its bloody spirit of persecution 
on the one hand, and, on the other, the 
duplicity, the false asceticism, the assump- 
tion of the appearance of the Lamb while 
animated by the spirit of the dragon, the 
substitution of its own codes and edicts and 
ethics for the word of God, which have 
specially characterized its religious orders 
and confraternities, are sufficiently like the 
adversary of true religion delineated by 
St. John to excite thought and induce self- 
examination. 

But it would be unjust to charge to the 
account of systems imperfections and errors 
which spring out of the inherent frailty of 
human nature. And the spirit of evil 
against which the apostle warns us has had 
imhappily a range wider than pagan or 
papal Rome or any organization yet wit- 
nessed on earth. If that Church has too 
often carried upon her forehead the title, 
'^ Mother of harlots," instead of the motto, 
*' Holiness unto the Lord," she has many a 

13 193 



Revelation of Saint John 

sister who must sit beside her as of kindred 
spirit; and, if the one has been '' Aholah/' 
the other has been ' ' Aholibah. '' If, among 
her followers, she has numbered both some 
of the purest saints who have trodden this 
earth and some of the vilest sinners, and 
these, too, in her loftiest places, she is not 
alone in the distinction. 

There have been individuals and Churches 
calling themselves Christians and Protes- 
tants that, like veritable Messalinas, have 
burned with incessant lust after every form 
and fashion of worldliness, and whose 
lovers, as Jeremiah says, have not had need 
to weary themselves in seeking for them. 
There is too much truth in the biting sar- 
casm of Heine : ' ' Christianity was once 
based on blood ; it now rests on another 
basis — money. Wafers of silver and gold 
are the only ones that work miracles in 
modern days.** When the solemn services 
of the holy sacraments lose their attraction 
and are accounted dull and pale when com- 
pared with the brighter light of social 
festivities ; when prayer meetings are 
sparsely attended, while glittering parlors 
are crowded with guests ; when the shout- 
ing of souls newly born into the kingdom is 

194 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

drowned by the ' ' chant to the sound of the 
viol;** when grief over '' the affliction of Jo- 
seph *' is far less than the sorrow for the 
loss of worldly prestige or patronage ; when 
religion is used simply as an adjunct to the 
social propensities or a synonym for liber- 
ality in promoting financial enterprises — 
then there is need that we read again the 
apocalyptic vision of Babylon, that we may 
avert the doom that is certain otherwise to 
come. Destruction must surely be the end 
of those ' ' whose god is their belly, and 
whose glory is their shame, who mind 
earthly things." The vials of divine anger 
must sooner or later empty their plagues 
upon all such. 

In the selection and introduction of Tyre 
as the representative of a worldly Church 
the apostle indicates the source from which 
danger is to be apprehended. Tyre was a 
mart of commerce. Upon her ships the 
merchandise of the world was transported, 
and it was sold in her markets. Her trade 
extended to the ends of the earth, and by^ 
her mercantile transactions she was brought 
into contact with the whole circle of known 
nations. The close acquaintance and fel- 
lowship thereby wrought with all religions, 

195 



Revelation of Saint John 

races, and customs produced its customary 
result of lowering tlie standard of morals 
and, under the specious plea of encouraging 
liberalism of opinion, led to apathy toward 
all religion ; while, at the same time, the 
increase of wealth, art, and refinement 
created a love for luxury and worldly good. 
Corrupted herself, she became in turn a 
source of corruption to others, and her inter- 
course with Israel had a disastrous effect 
upon the chosen people. 

In this lies the peril of contact with the 
world. It is the scene of conflict; it may 
be the field either of defeat or victory. The 
Lord Jesus prayed, not that his disciples 
should be taken out of the world, but that 
they should be preserved from its evil. 
We are placed in it that we may trans- 
form it. It is possible that all beauty, art, 
wealth, culture, and commerce may be 
sanctified and made to contribute to the 
redemption of the world. Every thought 
may be brought into captivity to the obedi- 
ence of Christ. 

But it may, on the contrary, transform and 
corrupt us. Without the aid of supernatural 
grace the influence of the world upon the 
Christian is demoralizing and destructive. 

196 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

Whatever is without God is equally with- 
out hope. Art, for instance, separated from 
its mission as an auxiliary to morals and re- 
ligion and made independent, becomes ar- 
tificial, and then degenerates into artifice. 
The world, instead of being lifted to a 
higher plane, drags the Christian to its own 
level. It is remarkable that Paul, whose 
facilities of observation were large and 
powers of perception keen, w^hen writing to 
the Romans, the people of the eternal city, 
whose one dream and ambition in all her 
history had been power, commended the 
Gospel of Christ as ' ' the power of God unto 
salvation;" but, when writing to Corinth, 
the busy center of commerce and merchan- 
dise, full of wealth, luxury, and corruption, 
he presented as the only influence which 
could correct these evils this profound truth : 
' * Know ye not that ye are not your own ? 
For ye are bought with a price : therefore 
glorify God." 

There has not been a period since the 
days of John when the lesson which he 
wished to enforce in this vision of apostate 
and fallen Babylon was more important than 
now. Between the age of the apostles and 
the times in which we live a stronger re- 

197 



Revelation of Saint John 

semblance exists than between any epoclis 
in the annals of man. The rapid increase 
of means of transportation by which the 
ends of the earth are drawn together is 
effecting that state of things which the con- 
solidation of the civilized world under the 
control of the Roman Empire produced. 
The boundaries between nations are being 
effaced ; and their easy communication with 
each other makes possible an exceptional 
intermingling of languages, usages, moral 
codes, and religion. There is the same tend- 
ency toward the denial of all supernatural- 
ism, on one side, and, at the opposite 
extreme, toward an eclecticism which con- 
cedes some truth to all forms of religion, 
while questioning the absolute truth of any, 
as that with which the apostolic Church was 
confronted. There is an excessive liberal- 
ism which, in its aversion to narrowness 
and under the plea of enlightened culture, 
would abandon all that specifically differ- 
entiates Christianity. But we will have 
read the records of the ante-Nicene period 
in vain if we have not learned from them that 
an imperfect Christianity, w^hile it does not 
gain the world, does lose its own soul, and 
that the regeneration of mankind keeps 

198 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

exact pace with the meavSure of spirituality 
and purity which prevails in the Church of 
Christ. 

Babylon, the counterfeit of the kingdom, 
is doomed to inevitable destruction. Over 
the sad end of a Church dominated by the 
spirit of the world and which has finall}' 
apostatized from Christ the worldly may say, 
in regretful lament, ' ' Alas, alas, that great 
city;" the ''merchants of the earth" may 
' ' weep and mourn over her ; for no man buy- 
eth their merchandise any more ; " but the 
heavens rejoice. For where there is per- 
manent alienation from God no real life can 
survive : ' ' The voice of the bridegroom and 
of the bride shall be heard no more at all in 
thee." There can be no fruitful activity or 
profitable labor, for ' ' the sound of a mill- 
stone shall be heard no more at all in thee." 
There can be no inward illumination or safe 
walking, for ''the light of a candle shall 
shine no more at all in thee." 

3. Methods of Success Reiterated, — After a 
few words of exultant triumph over the fall 
of Babylon, and the bright hopes for the 
future of Christ's kingdom opened up 
thereby, in which heaven and earth unite, 
the apostle, before finally leaving the sub- 

199 



Revelation of Saint John 

ject, points us again (in chapter xix) to the 
weapons by which victory must be won. 
Repeating what has been so often said by 
him that the impression is made on us that 
herein lies the central thought of the book, 
but with a fullness of detail not previously 
equaled and with a stress of emphasis which 
guarantees the importance of the truth, he 
asserts again that the conquering weapons 
are **the blood of the Lamb" and ''the 
word of their testimony '' (Rev. xii, 1 1 ; xix, 
15). The cross and the Bible — these are 
the means by which the world is to be over- 
come, these are the instruments through 
which the Lord Jesus Christ and the Hol}^ 
Ghost work, and with these the Christian 
and the Church are sufficiently armed for 
any conflict or adversary. 

John saw '' heaven opened (verse 1 1), and 
behold a white horse/* Thus does the 
Christ appear at the close of the conflict, 
sitting upon the white horse of victory, just 
as he appeared at the beginning when, 
armed with the bow, ''he went forth con- 
quering, and to conquer '' (chap, vi, 2). He 
is described by the titles which he had at- 
tributed to himself in his letters to the seven 

churches of Asia. He is here the ' ' Faithful 

200 



The Counterfeit of the Kingdom 

and True ;*' so had he written of himself to 
Laodicea. '' In righteousness he doth 
judge and make war; "to Philadelphia he 
had called himself ' ' he that is holy, he that 
is true/* *'His eyes were as a flame of 
fire/' these very words he had written to 
Thyatira. ' ' Out of his mouth proceedeth a 
sharp sword/' to Pergamos he had spoken 
of himself as the one having ' ' the sharp 
sword/' To Ephesus he had described him- 
self as the one that ' ' walketh in the midst 
of the golden candlesticks [or churches] /' 
and here he is seen in company with the 
armies of his followers. He had promised 
Sardis that the faithful should walk with 
him ** in white /' here the saints with him 
are '' clothed in fine linen, white and clean/' 
To Smyrna he had said, ' ' I will give thee 
a crown of life/' and here upon his head 
are * * many crowns/' He has a name which 
all can read, '' King of kings, and Lord of 
lords/' ruling (shepherding) the nations 
with the iron staff of his power. But he 
has also a name that no man knoweth ; for 
he had himself said, ' ' No man knoweth the 
Son, but the Father." He is the Word of 
God, the embodiment and utterance of the 
Godhead's deepest thought and being, the 

201 



Revelation of Saint John 

'' brightness*' of the Father's glory, '' and 
the exprevss image of his person." 

The weapons which he employs are dis- 
tinctly said to be the '' sharp sword" that 
goeth ''out of his mouth," and the blood 
by which he atoned for sin. The '' sharp 
sword " means, unquestionably, '' the sword 
of the Spirit," the word inspired by the 
Spirit of truth, the Scriptures which testify 
of him (John v, 39), the word by which we 
are sanctified (John xvii, 17), the Bible of 
revelation. By this word, ''the breath of 
his lips," he slays the wicked (Isa. xi, 4). 
With this, "the spirit of his mouth," he 
consumes the wicked one (2 Thess. ii, 8). 

And the other weapon is his blood. He 
is " clothed with a vesture dipped in blood." 
" He treadeth the wine press of the fierce- 
ness and wrath of Almighty God." In no 
way could the cross be more explicitly indi- 
cated. Lifted up from the earth upon it, 
he draws all men unto himself. It is 
"Christ crucified" who is the "power" 
and " wisdom " of God. No weapons more 
carnal than these does he employ; none 
other do we need. By them the beast and 
the false prophet are overcome, and both 

are " cast alive into a lake of fire." 

202 



PART VI 

progressive Steps by Mbicb tbe 1l&eal 
Iktna&om of Cbrist ts to be 1Realf3e& 



Progressive Steps 



PART VI 

Pfogfi^essive Steps by Which the Ideal Kingdom 
of Christ is to be Realized 

The twentieth chapter of the Revelation 
is one full of the most important matter. 
It describes the stages through which the 
kingdom of Christ must pass in order to at- 
tain its ideal state. The key to its solution 
is to be found in a careful and close study of 
the prophecy of Ezekiel, between which and 
it so exact a parallelism exists that neither 
can be understood without a comprehension 
of the other. A just appreciation of this 
fact would have precluded many of the 
ingenious but untenable hypotheses which 
have based themselves upon this section, 
and will now serve to throw light upon what 
seems obscure and almost undecipherable. 

The Book of Ezekiel consists of two dis- 
tinct parts, the dividing line between which 
is the siege and capture of Jerusalem. The 
earlier part of the book is a record of the 
many and gross idolatries and sins into 
which Israel had been tempted and fallen. 
The sum of these amounted to a spiritual 
infidelity and adultery which justly deserved 

205 



Revelation of Saint John 

the anger of Jehovah. And it was the sad 
and painful task of the prophet to repeat the 
solemn warnings with which he had been 
intrusted of impending and terrible doom. 

Succeeding this are denunciations by the 
prophet of severe and crushing judgments 
upon the surrounding nations, from whose 
intercourse Israel has received deadly harm, 
being corrupted by contact with them, both 
in peace and war, and more especially in a 
lowered spiritual life. This part of the 
Book of Ezekiel comes to an end in chapter 
xxxiii, 2 1, where the mournful announce- 
ment is made to the prophet that the pre- 
dicted blow had fallen : ' ' One that had es- 
caped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, 
The city is smitten.*' It was a conclusive 
proof of his authority to be considered a 
true prophet of God, but not less deplorable 
on that account. 

The remaining part of the book is taken 
up with brighter themes. Out of the nettle, 
danger, God has plucked the flower, safety. 
The fall of Jerusalem, which seemed to in- 
volve its disappearance from history, is the 
means of its salvation. The pages of the 
prophet are bright with his predictions of 
an Israel raised to a new and higher ideal, 

206 



Progressive Steps 

and restored thereby to the favor of God. 
The steps by which this happy condition is 
to be brought about are successively un- 
folded to us and occupy the book to its close. 
The false shepherds (chapter xxxiv), the 
unworthy and unfaithful rulers who, like 
the thieves and hirelings of whom Jesus 
spake (John x), fed themselves and cared 
naught for the flock, are to be removed ; 
and God offers himself to be a shepherd to 
Israel, searching his sheep, seeking them 
out in the cloudy and dark day, binding up 
that which was broken, and bringing again 
that which w^as lost — a beautiful predictive 
type of the Messiah, the good Shepherd who 
laid down his life for the sheep. 

In addition to this, the false prophets and 
unsafe guides whom Israel had followed are 
to be taken out of the way, and God prom- 
ises in their stead to put his Spirit within 
Israel, cleansing them from all their filth- 
iness and their idols and giving them a new 
heart and a new spirit (xxxvi, 25-27). This 
promise of spiritual regeneration is illus- 
trated by the vision of the valley of dry 
bones (xxxvii, 1-14). At the word of the 
prophet '' the bones" which laj' whitening 

in the valley ''came together, bone to his 

207 



Revelation of Saint John 

bone/' assuming the form and appearing in 
the likeness of men. But something more 
than human preaching was required, for as 
yet the forms were without life. Then the 
** breath'' of the Holy Spirit entered into 
them, like the wind whose sound was heard 
on the day of Pentecost, ''and they lived, 
and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding 
great army " of actual and real men. 

The first and closely following result of 
the spiritual resurrection thus wrought by 
the Holy Spirit was the reunion of Judah 
and Ephraim (verses 15-28). These two 
branches of Israel, unhappily disunited, 
always suspicious of each other, often in 
actual hostility, had by their division 
brought reproach upon God's cause and had 
subjected themselves to the disasters, op- 
pressions, and captivities which had marked 
their history. Now the schism was to be 
healed. They were to become one, so that 
God could say again, ''They shall be my 
people, and I will be their God." Then 
shall follow a new era of unexampled peace, 
prosperity, and productiveness. "David 
my servant shall be king over them," 
"their prince forever." "My tabernacle 
also shall be with them ; yea, I will be their 

208 



Progressive Steps 

God, and they shall be my people. And 
the heathen shall know that I the Lord do 
sanctify Israel." The fulfillment of part of 
this prophecy is distinctly declared by the 
angel of God who announced to the Virgin 
Mary concerning Christ (Luke i, 32), ^' The 
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of 
his father David : and he shall reign over 
the house of Jacob forever ; and of his king- 
dom there shall be no end.** Now it is a re- 
markable fact, of which use will hereafter be 
made to clear up the mystery of one of the 
obscurest parts of the Revelation of John, 
that the reign of David and his descend- 
ants over the throne of Jerusalem was ex- 
actly one thousand years. In the year 1063 
B. C. David was anointed king by Samuel 
and won his first triumph in his memorable 
overthrow of Goliath ; and in 63 B. C. Judea 
became subject to Rome, and the royal su- 
premacy of David's line came to an end."^ 
The '' scepter " then departed from Judah, 
and the '' lawgiver from between his feet." 
Immediately following this remarkable 
prophecy of Ezekiel is that concerning 
''Gog, the land of Magog" (chapters 
xxxviii, xxxix). He is instructed to say 

* Dr. William Smith, A^e7a Testament Histoi-y, p. 731. 
li 209 



Revelation of Saint John 

to Gog, ''After many days thou shalt be 
visited : in the latter years thou shalt come 
into the land that is brought back from the 
sword'' (xxxviii, 8); ''Thou shalt ascend 
and come like a storm '' (xxxviii, 9) ; " Thou 
shalt come up against my people of Israel" 
(xxxviii, 16); nevertheless, in the thirty- 
ninth chapter it is recorded, ' ' I am against 
thee, O Gog" (xxxix, i); " Thou shalt fall 
upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all 
thy bands, and the people that is with thee : 
I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of 
every sort, and to the beasts of the field to 
be devoured " (xxxix, 4) ; " Then shall they 
[that is, Israel] know that I am the Lord 
their God" (xxxix, 28); "Neither will I 
hide my face any more from them : for I 
have poured out my Spirit upon the house 
of Israel, saith the Lord God" (xxxix, 29). 

Ezekiel closes his prophecies (chapters 
xl-xlviii) with his pictures of restored 
Israel, its new ideal temple, and city, and 
land. 

The lines of thought thus laid down by 
the prophet of the Old Testament are so 
closely followed by the author of the Apoca- 
lypse that there seems no other conclusion 

left to us than that the parallelism of sub- 

210 



Progressive Steps 

ject is intended to be as exact as is that of 
language and imagery. 

In the Apocalypse, too, *'the faithful 
city '' (Isa. i, 21) has forfeited her faith and 
' ' become an harlot. " The dire catastrophe 
which the seer of the old dispensation saw 
falling upon corrupt and apostate Jerusalem 
has also fallen upon Babylon, the unfaithful 
Church of the new. So, also, before the eyes 
of theapostle, as well as those of the prophet, 
there gleamed a vision of a restored Church, 
pure and clean, descending from God out of 
heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband. 
How this vision is to be made real, how 
that splendid city is to be brought into ex- 
istence of whose glories the eloquent figures 
of the closing chapters inspire such lofty 
conceptions, it remains for him to tell us, 
in order that in all ages to come Christian 
men may discern the paths along which they 
must labor and the steps through which they 
must ascend if their efforts are to be 
crowned with favor and success. 

How valuable a help the study of Ezekiel 
affords us in the interpretation of the Apoca- 
lypse may be seen in the light which it 
throws upon the subject of the ''thousand 

years." The foundation of those theories 

211 



Revelation of Saint John 

of a millennium which have taken such hold 
upon the minds of men as to have per- 
ceptibly modified language and to have 
made the word one of the commonplaces of 
thought lies in the few verses which make 
up the first half of the twentieth chapter. 
There must be something peculiarly at- 
tractive about these theories and very much 
in them accordant with our instinctive hopes, 
since the paragraph in the text furnishes 
but a narrow basis upon which to build a 
superstructure so large. It is not easy, 
moreover, to understand why, in a book so 
allegorical as is the Apocalypse, this para- 
graph should enjoy the exceptional dis- 
tinction of demanding a literal interpreta- 
tion, as would be the case if these theories 
are admitted. Nevertheless, it is true that, 
from very early ages in Christian history 
until now, a belief in and expectation of a 
personal and visible appearance and reign 
upon earth of the Lord Jesus Christ, inau- 
gurating with his saints a period, stretching 
through a thousand years, of inconceivable 
peace and prosperity, has been entertained 
by many of his purest and mOwSt zealous fol- 
lowers, and has even been made the dis- 
tinguishing tenet of large bodies of m.en. 

212 



Progressive Steps 

Whether these opinions are legitimately 
based upon the text and how far a correct 
exegesis compels us to accept them we must 
now inquire, endeavoring in all fairness and 
candor to so interpret the inspired words as 
to make the various details of the para- 
graph consistent with each other and with 
the rest of the sacred Scriptures. 

Referring once more to the prophecy of 
Ezekiel, we find the order of events there 
described to be, first, a resurrection of 
dry bones and a vivification of them into 
men, then a united Church and people of 
God, an undefined period of happy pros- 
perity, a restoration of the kingdom of 
David, a combined assault upon this king- 
dom by hostile nations under the name of 
Gog and Magog, and the complete and final 
victory of the kingdom over them. 

In the Apocalypse the same order is fol- 
lowed, with variation only in some details 
of the picture. The only feature which 
can be called new is that of the binding and 
loosing of Satan ; and even this, by impli- 
cation, at least, is in Ezekiel. It is cer- 
tainly a reasonable presumption that the 
same truths, whatever they are, were in 
the mind both of the prophet and the 

213 



Revelation of Saint John 

apostle, and were intended to be taught by 
both. 

Now, if anything in the interpretation of 
the Apocalypse may be relied on as valid 
and beyond question it is that the reign of 
Christ is not a future event, to be expected 
at some day which has not yet dawned upon 
earth, but is a present and existent fact. 
That kingdom was inaugurated when the 
Lord Jesus, having risen from the dead and 
ascended to heaven, led captivity captive 
and bestowed upon his followers the gift of 
the Holy Spirit. When St. Paul in writing 
to the Corinthians says, ''He must reign, 
till he hath put all enemies under his feet,'' 
surely the meaning is that he does now 
reign and shall continue so to do until the 
result is accomplished. 

The mediatorial sovereignty of the Lord 
Jesus Christ is, indeed, the one theme of 
the whole book of Revelation. The con- 
summation and undisputed supremacy of 
the kingdom has not been reached. It is in 
its militant, not triumphant state. But im- 
perfection within and hostility without no 
more affect the reality of its being, although 
they may militate against its well-being, 
than did treason w4thin and war without 

214 



Progressive Steps 

contravene the fact of the sovereignty of 
David and his house over Judah. Into this 
kingdom not a select number, but all the 
true followers of Jesus are introduced. 
They are '' a royal priesthood." They are 
''joint heirs with Christ.'' ''We see not 
yet," indeed, " all things put under him ; " 
but we see Jesus ' ' crowned with glory and 
honor;" and "he that sanctifieth and they 
who are sanctified are all of one : for which 
cause he is not ashamed to call them 
brethren." 

Again, it may be accepted as almost an 
axiom of interpretation that the resurrec- 
tion referred to in the words, ' ' They lived 
and reigned with Christ," means a spiritual 
change, and not a ph3^sical or bodily one. 
It is synonymous with that epoch in the 
Christian's life when he is delivered " from 
the power of darkness " and translated ' ' into 
the kingdom of God's dear Son," that crisis 
of spiritual existence which is called con- 
version or regeneration, when one is " born 
from above" and raised with Christ into 
newness of life. The resurrection spoken 
of is stated to be that of ' ' the souls of them 
that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, 
and for the word of God, and which had not 

215 



Revelation of Saint John 

worshiped the beast, neither his image/' 
It is also called ''the first resurrection/' 
thus differentiating it from another and 
subsequent resurrection of ' ' the rest of the 
dead/' This first resurrection, moreover, 
exempts those who partake of it from the 
power of " the second death/' which is de- 
fined as the being '^cast into the lake of 
fire/' It separates them from '' the rest of 
the dead" — those who are dead ''in tres- 
passes and sins/' as they themselves once 
were — who live not again until ' ' the thou- 
sand years" are finished. 

We are now on sure ground. The mean- 
ing of this vision is that the mediatorial 
kingdom of our Lord is to be established 
on the earth, and that by the proper use of 
those instrumentalities which have been 
given into our hands, namely, the word of 
God and the blood of the Lamb, it shall ad- 
vance in spite of all opposition and hin- 
drances, until all worldliness and false 
prophetism shall be eliminated, until Christ 
"shall have put down all rule and all au- 
thority and power," until "the kingdoms 
of this world" shall become "the king- 
doms of our Lord, and of his Christ," and 
" he shall have delivered up the kingdom 

216 



Progressive Steps 

to God, even the Father," and the praj^er 
shall be fttlfilled which daily ascends to the 
throne of grace, '' Thy kingdom come." 
The millennium is now. We are living 
in it. Its light shines but dimly, it is true, 
but it will shine more and more until the 
perfect day. 

The period during which the saints shall 
live and reign with Christ is stated to be 
'' a thousand years." Conjecture has been 
rife as to why this number should be se- 
lected. Manifestly, here, at least, the year- 
day theory, that which makes every day 
mentioned in the book the symbol of a 
year, breaks down. Otherwise, the period 
would be too long; and none have been 
found to maintain the opinion that the mil- 
lennium is to last three hundred and sixt}''- 
five thousand years. Yet, to interpret the 
expression literall}^ as if it meant exactly a 
thousand of our years, would be to depart 
entirely from the rule of the Apocalypse, 
in which numbers are taken as symbols of 
epochs, not as a measurement of duration. 
There is no reason given why in this case 
exception should be made to the constant 
and unvarying use of days and months and 
years in this book. 

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Revelation of Saint John 

Here, again, reference to the book of 
Ezekiel will dissolve the obscurity and pre- 
sent us with an explanation simple, con- 
sistent, and entirely in accordance with the 
usage which elsewhere prevails in the 
Apocalypse. 

In the description which Ezekiel gives of 
the happy results which were to follow the 
resurrection of the dry bones and the re- 
union of Israel, one of the particulars which 
tenderly touched every Jewish heart was, 
* ' David my servant shall be king over 
them; and they shall all have one shep- 
herd/' Whether the prophet was himself 
conscious of the full meaning of these words 
or not, it is nevertheless the fact that it was 
not in any merely earthly descendant of 
David that this prediction was to be realized, 
but in the Messiah, '' great David's greater 
Son." So, doubtless, the apostle of the 
Apocalypse accepted it. And, inasmuch as 
the sovereignty of David's house was, as has 
previously been said, just one thousand 
years, what more natural than that John 
should see in this number the signature 
and symbol of the reign of Christ? He 
does not mean that the duration of that 
reign shall be limited to a thousand years, 

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Progressive Steps 

but that, be it longer or shorter, this num- 
ber is its symbol and emblem. Whatever 
he mentions as taking place during the 
thousand years is to be understood by us as 
occurring during the progress of the media- 
torial kingdom of Christ from its commence- 
ment to its culmination. In the sight of 
the divine Being the period between the 
establishment of the kingdom and its com- 
plete and final triumph over all its foes, be 
it longer or shorter, is the day of Christ, and 
* * one day is with the Lord as a thousand 
years, and a thousand years as one day." 

The moments or stages in the growth of 
the kingdom are now to be specified. 

I. Restraints upon the Power of Satan. — 
There is one item in the revelation made to 
John, and through him to us, which is pe- 
culiar to him. It is, indeed, implied in the 
book of Ezekiel, but is not explicitly com- 
municated. This is the restraint which is 
put upon the power of Satan. An angel is 
seen to '' come down from heaven, having 
the key of the bottomless pit [the same 
mentioned in chapter ix, i-i i] and a great 
chain in his hand [see 2 Pet. ii, 4; Jude 6]. 
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old 
serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and 

219 



Revelation of Saint John 

bound liim a thousand years/' * ' When the 
thousand years are expired, Satan shall be 
loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to 
deceive the nations;'' but this loosing of 
him, it is said, will be for only "a little 
season " before his final destruction. As 
the thousand years are a synonym for the 
reign of Christ, the meaning is that during 
the existent mediatorial sovereignty of 
Christ Satan is debarred his full liberty. 
His judgment has not, indeed, come, and 
he still exists, but his activity is circum- 
scribed, and his power to hurt is limited and 
curbed. 

It will be remembered that in the twelfth 
chapter Satan was described under the em- 
blem of the dragon and his futile hostility 
toward the woman was depicted. At the 
close of the chapter we were told that ' ' the 
dragon was wroth with the woman, and 
went to make war with the remnant of her 
seed." Since that time he has seemed to 
disappear from mention and is directly al- 
luded to only occasionally. His place in 
the drama of warfare has been taken by the 
two wild beasts, his emissaries, in whom all 
enmity against Christ and his followers has 
been concentrated. Now that these have 

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Progressive Steps 

been judged and consigned to their doom 
and have in turn passed from the stage, 
the apostle reverts to the evil one behind 
and within them, whose subordinate agents 
they were. 

One of the noteworthy facts of the uni- 
verse brought to light mainly by this book 
of Revelation, but fully corroborated by 
other scriptures when attention is directed to 
its quest, is the ambition of Satan to copy 
and travesty the divine Being, both in 
modes of manifestation and methods of 
work. His abilities seem to lie, not in the 
direction of originality, but of imitation. 
He is not a creator or inventor, but a con- 
summate actor and a master of the art of 
mimicry. As the Deity is revealed to us in 
the triune personality of Father, Son, and 
Spirit, so also there is a trinity of evil — the 
dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. 

And, again, during the contintiance of 
the mediatorial sovereignty of Christ estab- 
lished for the elimination of sin from the 
universe the Father does not directly inter- 
pose, but has delivered all things into the 
hands of the Son, and through him to the 
Holy Spirit, whose instruments are the cross 
and the Bible, and whose witnesses andme- 

221 



Revelation of Saint John 

morials are the two sacraments. In like 
manner, there is an attempted imitation of 
this on the part of Satan. His personal 
agency in human affairs is confined within 
narrow limits, not of his own will surely, 
but by reason of him who hath subjected 
him. Whatever influence his malignity and 
deep-seated hatred of God can exert in order 
to defeat the plans and purposes of redemp- 
tion is wielded mainly through his subordi- 
nates, the two wild beasts. He himself is 
incarcerated in the abyss of darkness at the 
wall of his Master and Lord. He seems to 
have been allowed personally to tempt 
Christ ; but his arts were wasted, he lost the 
field of battle, and must pay the penalty of 
defeat. Referring to this, the Lord Jesus 
said, ' ' I beheld Satan as lightning fall from 
heaven ;" and again, *' Now is the prince of 
of this world cast out;" and again, '^The 
prince of this world is judged." 

While, therefore, the opposition w^hich 
the Christian encounters, the temptations 
which beset him, the evil against which he 
must struggle proceed incipiently from the 
great adversary, it is only the emissaries 
and agents of the ruler of this world's 
darkness w^hom he is called on personally 

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Progressive Steps 

to encounter. As God, in order to save 
man, must become incarnate in human 
flesh, so must Satan, in order to tempt, 
embody himself in some earthly form. 

The comforting- assurance which Paul ad- 
ministered to the brethren of Corinth was, 
* ' There hath no temptation taken you but 
such as is common [that is, moderated] to 
man." The work of the Lord Jesus Christ 
extends some of its blessings to all the race 
of mankind, to the disobedient as well as to 
the faithful, and tempers the vicissitudes of 
our mortal state to our capacity of enduring 
them. It exempts us, though it did not 
him, from exposure to Satan's unshackled 
power. Satan himself is bound and shut 
up in the pit. God's seal is on him, for he, 
too, is the property of the divine Being. 
And he deceives '*the nations no more" 
till the thousand years are fulfilled. Then 
he is to be '* loosed a little season," as we 
shall see, prior to his overwhelming dis- 
comfiture and irretrievable defeat. 

2 . Outpouring of the Holy Spirit tmder the 
Emblem of Resurrection, — What has already, 
in the interpretation of this part of the 
Apocalypse, been said upon this question will 
obviate the necessity for any long discussion 

223 



Revelation of Saint John 

of it. Holding the prophecy of Ezekiel in 
mind, we cannot but conclude that what 
was meant to be taught by the resurrection 
of the bones in the valley of vision is like- 
wise indicated by the expression, ''They 
lived and reigned with Christ/' '* This is 
the first resurrection/' As the resurrection 
spoken of in Ezekiel was a striking emblem 
of the power of the Holy Spirit to effect 
spiritual regeneration, so are the words to 
be taken here. The usage of describing re- 
generation by the emblem of a resurrection 
is so common in the Scriptures that there is 
no need to adduce illustrations of it. Nor 
is there any need to dwell upon the analo- 
gies between the two or to draw out the im- 
portant lessons suggested thereby. 

One truth, however, is so vital that it 
must detain us a moment, namely, the ab- 
solute necessity for the supernatural agency 
of the Holy Spirit in the inception of spirit- 
ual life. No one who believes in an actual 
resurrection — that is, in one that is more 
than figurative and spiritual, in a resurrec- 
tion which extends to man's complete being, 
in a resurrection of the body, and not a 
mere continuance of the life of the soul^ — 
conceives that any natural agents in exist- 

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Progressive Steps 

ence, or, at least, within our knowledge, 
are competent to produce it. The bodies 
we have here are ''terrestrial," brought 
into and continued in existence by the 
operation of natural laws. The body of the 
resurrection, whatever its connection and 
continuity with the present one, is confess- 
edly '' a spiritual bod3^" No forces within 
the realm of nature are able to create life or 
to restore it to that which has lost it. The 
experience and observation of all the cen- 
turies fully establish this truth. Whether 
our present bodies or souls come into exist- 
ence by traduction or direct creation is 
another question; but all Christians are 
agreed that the resurrection of the body 
must be effected by the direct action of God. 
So, likewise, analogy would teach, must 
it be with regeneration of the soul. That 
change by which we are raised from the 
death of sin to the life of God, that trans- 
formation by which we cease to be merely 
citizens of earth and become citizens of 
heaven, can be effected only by the direct 
and supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit. 
No material, earthly, or human forces are 
sufficiently mighty to bring it to pass. 
Here God must specifically act— not as in 

15 225 



Revelation of Saint John 

other modes of his work, but by a distinct 
exercise of power. Nor are we allowed to 
conceive of entrance into the spiritual king- 
dom of God as the resultant of any process 
of evolution or growth ; whatever prepara- 
tion is made for it, the spiritual life of the 
soul begins in a special operation of the 
Holy Spirit as specific and distinct as that 
by which God * ' breathed into his nostrils 
the breath of life ; and man became a living 
soul/' The closing chapters of the sacred 
Scriptures are in unison with the opening 
ones of Genesis, and from the prelude to 
the final ''amen '' there is one harmonious 
melodv. 

It must be remembered that John was a 
witness to and a participant in the extraor- 
dinary effusion of the Holy Spirit on the 
day of Pentecost. He speaks, therefore, of 
that which he knew and testifiei^ to that 
which he had seen. While the results of 
the transformation wrought in him are ap- 
parent to us, the fact of it was to him a mat- 
ter of consciousness. It is because he had 
experienced the power of the Holy Spirit 
that he declares the necessity for its exer- 
cise. And the stress laid upon this regen- 
erating agency of the Spirit in order that 

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Progressive Steps 

we may be made to live and reign with 
Christ is no slight evidence that the man 
who wrote the Apocalypse and he who re- 
corded the words of Christ, ' ' Except a man 
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom 
of God/* were one and the same person. 

There is no warrant in Scripture for the 
assumption that the descent of the Holy 
Ghost upon the band of disciples in Jeru- 
salem was intended to be an anomalous 
event and incapable of repetition. In the 
form of manifestation possibly it was, and 
in the accompanying signs ; but not in its 
spirit and power. Our Lord plainly prom- 
ised to his disciples the abiding presence of 
the Comforter to the end of the ages. But 
that promise was and is conditional. The 
Holy Ghost was not given until Jesus was 
glorified, neither can he be now. The rec- 
ognition and reception of Christ as our 
only hope and Saviour is the measure ac- 
cording to which the Spirit now imparts his 
life. Nor can any definition or theory of 
Christianity be accepted as correct in which 
the atonement of Christ does not hold the 
place of central principle. And in pro- 
portion as the crucified Christ is believed on 
and accepted as the only name ^' given 

227 



Revelation of Saint John 

among men, whereby we must be saved,'* 
may richer and more abundant outpourings 
of the Holy Spirit in his offices of regenera- 
tion and sanctification be expected. 

3. Union of Christian Believers. — There is 
one particular and important item relating 
to the combing of Messiah's kingdom which 
is described with greater minuteness and 
fullness of detail by Ezekiel than by the 
writer of the Apocalypse. This is the unity 
of the Church of God — a point upon which 
the older prophet lays great stress. This 
unity is set forth both as a direct result of 
spiritual resurrection and as an essential ele- 
ment of preparation for the final conflict 
with evil. By symbol and in word he 
strongly emphasizes the declaration that, as 
the sticks which he took became one stick 
in his hand, so should Judah and Ephraim 
be made one in God's hand. '' I will make 
them one nation. . . . They shall be no 
more two nations, neither shall they be 
divided into two kingdoms any more at 
all." All the wounds of division shall be 
closed and the scars of schism healed. 

It cannot be said that this same truth is so 
patent in the Revelation, but it is there by 
justifiable inference. The fact that the 

228 



Progressive Steps 

saints live and reign with Christ implies 
that the kingdom is a united one. The 
union and fellowship of the saints with each 
other, without division or alienation, is as- 
sumed. The obviousness of the truth was 
sufficient reason for less explicitness of 
statement. At any rate, if the apostle can 
be accused of any omission here he made 
ample amends in the prominence given to 
the subject in the fourth gospel, in which he 
records the praj' er of our great High Priest, 
' ' That they all may be one ; as thou, 
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they 
also may be one in us : that the world may 
believe that thou hast sent me." 

The subject which thus opens out to us 
is one of such absorbing interest as to de- 
mand ample consideration. If it be true, 
as the words of the prophet and, indirectly, 
of the apostle seem to indicate, that one re- 
sult of that spiritual quickening by the Holy 
Spirit called conversion or regeneration is 
to bring about union between all who call 
themselves disciples of Christ, then that re- 
generation cannot be regarded as complete 
or normal which does not produce fellow- 
ship with all other believers ; neither can 
any Church be said to have attained a state in 

229 



Revelation of Saint John 

any great degree approaching its ideal which 
is not in union with the whole Church of 
Christ. And, in addition, any instrumen- 
talities we may employ in order to bring 
about the conversion of the world must be 
ineffectual, or, at least, greatlj^- shorn of their 
influence, until there exists in tbe Christian 
world a unity which finds its example and the 
source of its power in the divine nature. 

Upon this important question there is 
entire consentience of opinion among the 
inspired evangelists and apostles of the New 
Testament. They record their conviction 
that Caiaphas was speaking as a true prophet 
of God, however faulty his motives in so 
doing, when he said that Jesus should die 
in order to ^^ gather together in one the 
children of God that were scattered abroad." 
Appreciating the immense loss of power 
which had resulted from the schism be- 
tween Judah and Ephraim, a loss felt even 
more severely in the moral than in the po- 
litical world, they strove with all their 
might to prevent a like division between the 
Jewish and Gentile converts to Christ. Nor 
did they cease their efforts, although la5dng 
themselves open to the imputation of incon- 
sistency, until finally the matter became 

230 



Progressive Steps 

one of life or death to Christianity. With 
a tenacity which appears to us akin to ob- 
stinacy, they clung to the hope that the 
Jewish nation would accept Christ as Mes- 
siah and King, that the old Church would, 
under the transforming power of the Holy 
Spirit, merge into the new as the dawn 
melts into the day, and that thus the con- 
tinuity of history would be preserved. 

There can be no question that the rejec- 
tion of Jesus as Saviour by his own people 
was a serious disaster. It created a division 
among those who believed in a living God, 
a personal Providence, and broke the unity 
of their testimony in the court of mankind. 
It sent Christianity out to its work heavily 
handicapped; and acute opponents, like 
Celsus and Porphyry, were not slow to avail 
themselves of the advantage it gave them. 
Nor has the loss of power therefrom accru- 
ing been recovered to this day. The event 
is sufficient justification for the wise con- 
servatism which marked the actions of the 
apostles. 

As little room can there be now for ques- 
tion that the divided, distracted, segmen- 
tary condition of Christendom, with the 
animosities, envies, sectarianism, undue 

231 



Revelation of Saint John 

exaltation of non-essentials, concentration 
of efforts upon things of minor importance, 
and cultivation of bigotry caused thereby, 
operates as a most active factor in shearing 
the religion of Christ of its legitimate in- 
fluence. Nor could increase of power 
within and superiority to the world without 
be brought about so quickly by any means 
as by a unity of believers — such unity as the 
New Testament inculcates. This state- 
ment in no degree conflicts with the uniform 
declaration of the Scriptures that the word 
of God and the blood of Christ are the two 
all-important and all-sufficient agencies for 
the furtherance of the kingdom ; it only 
asserts that the Bible and the cross will 
not have accomplished their purpose until 
such unity shall have followed their accept- 
ance. 

Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, no less 
emphatically affirms with all his authority 
the necessity of this union. A careful study 
of his epistles will show that he divides the 
religious history of the world into three dis- 
tinct periods — Judaism, Gentilism, and a 
final period in which these shall be united. 

First was Judaism, which began with 
Abraham, the pioneer and father of such 

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Progressive Steps 

as believe in a living, personal God. It 
ran its course, fulfilled its mission, and liad 
attained what Paul calls ' ' tlie fullness of 
times'' when ''God sent forth his Son, 
made of a woman, made under the law, to 
redeem them that were under the law." 
The office of Judaism in the role of redemp- 
tion was to bear witness to the supernatural. 
The Jew believed thoroughly in God as the 
Creator, the Providence over nature, the 
Ruler and Judge of mankind ; in God as a 
person distinct from nature and supreme 
over it. He fully recognized the obligation 
of the commandment, '' The Lord our God 
is one Lord ; and thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thine heart, and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy might." But he 
exalted the supernatural so highly as to put 
an impassable chasm between God and his 
creatures. The immanent presence of God 
in nature was lost sight of in the concep- 
tion of his transcendency over it. An in- 
carnation of the Deity and, above all, any 
such contact of God with humanity as to 
admit of the possibility of his suffering was 
abhorrent to the mind of the Jew. And so 
when Christ came to his own as the Word 
''made flesh " his own received him not. 

233 



Revelation of Saint John 

And, with his foot almost upon the throne 
of the world, the Jew stumbled and fell. 

Following this period, in PauVs concep- 
tion, was that of Gentilism, which has 
also its peculiar mission, runs its destined 
course, and has its times of fullness toward 
which it tends (Rom. xi, 2 5). This was also 
the conception of Christ himself ; for he had 
said, ' ' Jerusalem shall be trodden down of 
the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles 
be fulfilled '' (Luke xxi, 24). 

The mission of the heathen Gentilism lay 
in the sphere of nature and humanity. With 
all the beauty, grace, order, motion, and 
life of the world the Gentile was in sym- 
pathy. His defect was that he rose no 
higher. The gods he believed in were 
simply human and natural forces personified 
and exalted. His need was to be impressed 
vividly with the conception of the reality of 
the supernatural and to recognize the 
divine Being above and beyond man and 
the world. 

To meet the needs of all classes of hu- 
manity God has employed those two great 
instrumentalities to which reference is so 
constantly made in the Revelation of St. 
John — on the one hand, the Bible, the 

234 



Progressive Steps 

written word, the sword of the Spirit, with 
its intense realization of the presence and 
power of God in nature and history; on the 
other, the cross, the blood of the Lamb, 
with its rich testimony to the fact that 
'' God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lie veth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life." 

It was Paul's confident and inspiring be- 
lief that when the fullness of the Gentiles 
should have come there would be a union of 
all believers in God ; * ' and so all Israel 
shall be saved." And this is the truth to 
which the writer of the Apocalypse bears 
witness in his vision of the saints who 
''lived and reigned with Christ" in one 
united and concordant kingdom. 

If, then, the attainment of so desirable 
and blessed a result as that of the consum- 
mation of Christ's kingdom upon earth is 
contingent upon the unity of believers it 
surely behooves the disciples of Christ to 
labor more earnestly than ever before for 
this unity. The magnitude of the result is 
worth the sacrifices needed to gain it. 

In what this unity shall consist, in what 
sense believers are to be one, is a question 

235 



Revelation of Saint John 

upon whicli lawful difference of opinion 
may be allowed, and it is to be settled only 
by a sympathetic and careful study of the 
Scriptures. But as to the mode of its at- 
tainment and as to what must precede its 
realization the Bible is sufficiently precise 
and explict. It will not be secured by a 
conventional agreement to accept any com- 
mon and universal symbol, sacrament, or 
organization; unity means something too 
vital for that. It will not be founded upon 
the basis of any past fact, upon any his- 
torical creed or institution or order of min- 
istry ; unity is something akin to life, and 
life is progressive, anticipative, not retro- 
spective. The Jewish people were of one 
common lineage, having the same fathers, 
the same oracles, the same institutions, but 
it w^as by no chain descending from past 
times that they were held in unity ; as soon 
as the hope of a future Messiah vanished 
their past associations became a rope of 
sand. 

The Lord Jesus Christ has himself most 
plainly and authoritatively announced to 
us the processes by which alone this unity 
can be attained. In the ever memorable 
words of his prayer as our great High 

236 



Progressive Steps 

Priest he said, ''Sanctify them through 
thy truth : thy word is truth,'* and then al- 
most immediately added, ''That they all 
may be one." The unity which he an- 
ticipated and now desires is one that must 
be preceded by sanctification. This is fully 
in accordance with the prophecy of Ezekiel, 
for the union by which Judah and Ephraim 
were made one was preceded by the resur- 
rection to life which occurred when the dry 
and withered bones had been breathed upon 
by the Spirit. And, in the paragraph of 
the Apocalypse now under consideration, it 
was only after the souls of the witnesses 
and followers of Jesus had been raised by 
the first resurrection that they lived and 
reigned with Christ. Nor can any unity 
be real which is not preceded by a spiritual 
resurrection from the death of sin into new- 
ness of life through the power of the Holy 
Spirit. 

What is here said of unity as applied to 
the body of believers is equally applicable 
to each individual. The kingdom of Christ 
does not reach its designed consummation 
in the individual until the heart is united 
to fear the name of the Lord. The exclu- 
sion or omission of any part of our composite 

231 



Revelation of Saint John 

nature from the sanctifying influences of the 
Holy Spirit in so far mars the integrity and 
concord of the kingdom and is below its ideal. 
Entire sanctification is, as has been said by 
John Fletcher, a constellation made up by 
the union of all the graces in a glorious 
galaxy. And St. Paul teaches us that it is 
only when we shall '' come in the unity of 
the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son 
of God/* that we shall have attained ''unto 
a perfect man, unto the measure of the 
stature of the fullness of Christ.'' 

4. Final Triumph over the Carnal Mind, or 
Barbarism, Emblem of Gog and Magog, — 
With this glorious picture of the outpouring 
of the Spirit and the complete union of the 
Church of Christ in his mind, the apostle 
passes on to the decisive conflict and crown- 
ing victory of the kingdom. ''When the 
thousand years are expired,'' he says, 
"Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 
and shall go out to deceive the nations." 

It is worthy of note that the word which 
is used by St. John for "expired" is the 
same used in the fourth gospel in several 
important and significant places, although 
differently translated. It is found in the 
prayer of Jesus (John xvii, 23) in connection 

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Progressive Steps 

with the thought of unity, as in the section 
of the Revelation just considered, and is 
there rendered ''may be made perfect/' 
It is found in the same prayer (John xvii, 
4), and is used by our Lord in speaking of 
his active work upon earth, being there 
translated ''have finished/' It is also re- 
corded by St. John as being one of our 
Lord's exclamations while on the cross 
(John xix, 30), and is there also rendered 
"finished/' 

From these uses of the word the infer- 
ence is very reasonable that it signifies, not 
so much the termination of a period of du- 
ration, as the completion of a process. The 
thousand years may be said to have expired, 
not at the close of any number of years of 
time, but whenever the ends for which the 
kingdom of Christ is established are at- 
tained. Until those purposes are accom- 
plished the power of Satan is restrained and 
he is not allowed to exercise the full measure 
of his strength. He who makes " the 
wrath of man " to praise him, while ' ' the re- 
mainder of wrath " he restrains, guards his 
Church and his servants as ' ' a garden in- 
closed." 

History and experience furnish many an 

239 



Revelation of Saint John 

example of the providence that shelters and 
shields the infancy and immaturity of 
Churches and believers until adult vStrength 
has acquired power to resist. The storm 
that bends the reed will not move the sturdy 
oak; and one ^'rooted and grounded in 
love '* can withstand blasts that would be 
disastrous to the growing and tender shoot. 
All progress in human laws, in fact, tends 
to surround the evil-disposed with increas- 
ing restraints, in order that the weak and 
helpless and inexperienced may have an 
equal chance to develop their individuality. 

But at the expiration of this period, we 
are told, Satan is allowed to go forth to de- 
ceive the nations. The writer of the Apoca- 
lypse describes the final assault of Satan 
upon Christ's kingdom under the emblem, 
so often quoted and so much misunder- 
stood, of Gog and Magog. In so doing he 
draws again upon Ezekiel ; and if we wish 
to ascertain the meaning of both the apostle 
and the prophet we must revert to the cir- 
cumstances under which the prophecy was 
originally given, and must, in this instance, 
have recourse to history. 

Not long prior to the time of Ezekiel 
there had occurred a wsudden and terrible 

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Progressive Steps 

irruption of barbarians into the civilized 
parts of the world, which had caused wide- 
spread alarm and terror and shaken to its 
base the fabric of society which had through 
preceding centuries been laboriously built ' 
up. An immense horde of Scythians, in 
the rudest stage of savagery, without pity 
or regard for class, sex, age, or condition, 
with intense contempt for and hatred of 
those arts of refinement which they were 
incapable of appreciating, broke loose from 
their primitive home and, sweeping down 
through Asia, overvv^helming cities and em- 
pires, threatened to destroy every vestige 
of literature, order, and religion and to turn 
the world back to chaos and anarchy. 
Happily their onward course was arrested 
before the injury they caused had become 
irreparable. From this circumstance the 
name Gog, which was that of the horde, be- 
came the symbol of barbarism, and was 
used as such both by the prophet of the Old 
Testament and the apostle of the Revelation. 
The truth which is intended to be pre- 
sented is the possibility of an inroad of that 
barbarism from which no age is free and 
from which the most imminent peril to 
Christianity is to be dreaded. There is in 

16 241 



Revelation of Saint John 

every human being, however civilized, a 
germ of barbarism, a strain of savagery, 
which though repressed by education, by 
culture, or by law, is not destroyed by 
them, and w^hich under favoring con- 
ditions may become the ruling principle of 
life. In every community of men there will 
be found some who represent the highest 
stage which the community has reached; 
but there will be found some who remain in 
the most rudimentary condition of barbar- 
ism. It is the struggle between these op- 
posing elements which makes the life of the 
community. 

Gog and Magog do not represent heathen- 
ism, which is simply a lower form of re- 
ligion capable of being improved by the in- 
creased light of the Gospel. They represent 
the spirit of barbarism, which opposes itself 
to every form of religion, lurking as the dark 
shadow which waits upon all civilization, 
ready to manifest itself whenever the power 
which hinders its manifestation relaxes its 
vigilance. And unhappily there are, even 
in civilized and Christian countries, institu- 
tions allowed to remain whose only result 
is to foster the tendency toward barbarism, 
whose purpose is to feed the lower sensual 

242 



Progressive Steps 

appetites and passions that are at war alike 
with law, education, culture, and religion, 
and between w^hich and the kingdom of 
Christ must be perpetual antagonism until 
one or the other shall be exterminated. The 
study of history will reveal the fact that 
times occur in the life of nations when the 
tendency to revert to barbarism asserts itself 
m unusual strength, when the normal move- 
ment upward and onward is arrested, and 
the forces which drag men downward pre- 
dominate temporarily. 

It is such times and conditions of which 
Satan avails himself to show his most malig- 
nant power. With all such tendencies he is 
in closest alliance, and in the effort to in- 
tensify them finds his most congenial em- 
ployment. It is a mournful fact that the 
impulse toward the higher and better is not 
the only one to be found in man or in any 
creature ; we must take into the account the 
opposite fact of the tendency to revert to 
lower and baser levels. Indeed, it is not 
uncommon to notice that an unusual move- 
ment m one direction seems to originate an 
almost equal one in the opposite. Nor can 
there be any guarantee that the higher and 
purer faculties shall assert their legitimate 

243 



Revelation of Saint John 

sway except in the promised guidance and 
help of God. In individual experience, 
even after long and faithful service and 
growth, there will corne at times sudden 
suggestions and temptations which reveal 
the existence of desires and passions we had 
supposed extinct, but which have been kept 
down only by God's grace and our unceas- 
ing watchfulness ; such also is the case with 
the larger aggregations of men into com- 
munities and societies. And the price we 
must pay for liberty is eternal vigilance. 

The barbarian is, indeed, a man ; the es- 
sential elements of humanity lie in him as 
in all men. But there are properties which 
belong to the lowest states of society which 
constitute a differential characteristic and 
which disappear or, at least, become dor- 
mant when growth and culture take place. 

The barbarian is an intense realist. He 
dwells in the region of facts — such facts as 
are discoverable by his physical nature 
only. Of sentiment, of ideals, he knows 
nothing and cares less. Such things as 
these are spiritually discerned, and he is a 
natural man only. Of that unseen ether 
which lies around the bare and bald facts 
of life, connecting them with the divine and 

244 



Progressive Steps 

eternal source of things, of those loftier 
visions of the true, the beautiful, the good 
which fill the mind of the cultured with in- 
tensest delight, he has no conception. His 
delights and employments are sensual and 
low, and the end of all of his energies is to 
gratify them. Arcadian simplicity fades 
away with increased geographical and eth- 
nological knowledge. 

The only forces which the barbarian ap- 
preciates, therefore, are the mechanical and 
physical. With him might is right. Of 
the power of spiritual forces he has the most 
inadequate notions until he finds how weak 
his cunning and artifice are in the presence 
of civilization. Of that sacrifice and renun- 
ciation of self for the sake of love of which 
the cross of Christ is the summit and crown- 
ing example and in which is the demonstra- 
tion of the power and wisdom of God he is 
incapable of appreciation until the Holy 
Spirit breaks the chain with which Satan 
has bound him ; and then he ceases to be a 
barbarian. Clovis spake the real feeling of 
the savage, even when baptized, in exclaim- 
ing, ' ' Had I been there with my Franks 
they should not have nailed Jesus to the 
cross.'' 

245 



Revelation of Saint John 

By profession the barbarian is a soldier. 
He knows somewhat of the power of weap- 
ons of war and but little else. The me- 
chanical and industrial pursuits by which 
society is bound together are objects of 
scorn to him. He has profound contempt 
for labor as beneath his pride. The aris- 
tocracy he admires is built on idleness and 
bloodshed, not on toil or skill or honest 
work. 

Barbarians divide themselves on national 
lines alone. The broad humanity which 
overlaps territorial boundaries, or a patriot- 
ism which can embrace all mankind and rec- 
ognize a universal brotherhood, the bar- 
barian is not able to comprehend, or else he 
despises the notion as silly and puerile. He 
has no consideration of any ties save those 
of kinship, if, indeed, fully of these. All 
within this limit may not be friends ; but 
certainly all without are enemies, for whose 
welfare he need have no regard and whose 
rights he does not recognize. 

And because of these things the stage of 
barbarism is politically that of socialism, of 
that form of it in which the individual has 
no value or right of independent thought or 
action, except as the clan or tribe or com- 

246 



Progressive Steps 

munity may confer them. The discernment 
of the real worth of man is the gift of the 
religion of Jesus. In its teaching that the 
blood of Christ has been shed for the re- 
demption of all mankind, that the manifes- 
tation of the Spirit has been given to every- 
one, and that, therefore, it is not allowed to 
call any man common or imclean, it has 
laid the only solid foundation upon which 
true libert}^ independence, self-respect, and 
the highest enjoyments of life can be 
based. 

How rife this spirit of barbarism is, even 
in societies and States called civilized and 
Christian, a moderate degree of observation 
will prove. It is to be understood, of course, 
that to say a tendenc}^ exists in mankind to 
revert to barbarism is far from sa3ang that 
such a tendency is likely to predominate. 
In pointing out the dangers which beset 
civilization the Bible does by no means 
countenance despondency or encourage 
doubt as to the future of history. It indi- 
cates perils for the purpose of inciting us to 
the use of the means which it suggests for 
avoiding them. The spirit of the Bible is 
one of most cheerful hope as to the outcome 
of the conflict between good and evil ; and 

247 



Revelation of Saint John 

nowhere is the tone of assurance stronger 
than in the Revelation. 

But we shall be very unwise if we shall 
neglect to guard against those symptoms 
of danger v/hich are manifesting them- 
selves. The persistent attempts to reduce 
literature and poetry and art to a barbaric 
realism, dragging into light lusts and pas- 
sions which modesty, culture, and religion 
hide from view; the disposition, w^hich 
seems to increase, to make the boundaries 
of States and empires coincide with kinship 
of race, and thus to limit men's interests 
and aspirations to their own nationalities ; 
the multiplication of armies and the con- 
version of kingdoms into camps, in which 
every citizen must be a soldier ; the fearful 
increase of destructive dynamitism and an- 
archy; the employment of the most ad- 
vanced science and education in the inven- 
tion and improvement of machines of war ; 
the growth of that form of socialism which 
denies all individualism of property, family, 
and labor — these are indications of that 
proneness to barbarism from which man- 
kind is not yet free, and from which it will 
not be free until the world comes into the 
enjoyment of the liberty of Christ, 

248 



Progressive Steps 

The keen eye of the apostle discerned, 
even in the apparently secure age in which 
he lived, the signs of coming perils and 
dangers; and against these, men and 
Churches of all ages have had to struggle. 
The battle of Christ with Magog is part of 
that conflict with the carnal man that rages 
in the heart of every Christian, as well as 
in the world at large. Happily, however, 
we know from the pen of inspiration the 
full measure of danger to be apprehended, 
and may rest in the assurance that Satan 
has no other appliances of mischief in re- 
serve when these are exhausted. 

It will be noted that the apostle sa5^s, in de- 
scribing the assault of Gog and i\Iagog upon 
the kingdom of Christ, '' They went up on 
the breadth of the earth, and compassed the 
camp of the saints about, and the be- 
loved city." A distinction is made betw^een 
the *' city ," which symbolizes the Church, 
and the circumjacent '' cam.p," which is in- 
terposed as a bulwark between it and the 
enemy, and which may be regarded as rep- 
resenting law, education, government, and 
other conservative forces of the world. 
There lies in this a thought characteristic 
of the profound mind of the beloved apos- 

249 



Revelation of Saint John 

tie. In a vSense most true and deep, Chris- 
tians are '' the salt of the earth/' The in- 
terests of humanity are bound up with the 
welfare of the kingdom. In fighting the 
battles of God the Church is guarding the 
welfare of mankind. The bark of Chris- 
tianity carries man and all his fortunes. 
Barbarism is the common enemy of govern- 
ment and of religion, and in striving to 
injure one strikes at the other. Gog and 
Magog are antagonistic to the '' city" and 
the encircling *' camp " alike. In resisting 
the emissaries and allies of Satan Christian- 
ity is struggling for the benefit of civiliza- 
tion and safeguarding all earthly good, 
even as its Master died not for his own na- 
tion only, but for all men dispersed over 
the globe. For its own sake, if not out of 
regard for religion, society should jealously 
prohibit any infringement of divine law. 
'' Happy is that people, whose God is the 
Lord." 

On the other hand, it is a matter of pro- 
foundest importance to the cause of religion 
that it shall maintain the order and pros- 
perity of the community. No Christian can 
be indifferent to the welfare of the State in 
which he lives. As he dares not allow him- 

250 



Progressive Steps 

self in his own personal experience to watch 
without concern any indications of the 
growth of the carnal mind, neither can he 
be listless or apathetic when opinions de- 
structive to society are spreading abroad. 
The attacks upon governments are but the 
prelude to assaults upon religion. Again 
and again has ' ' the earth helped the 
woman," and resistance to lawlessness and 
anarchy been preservative of the existence 
of the Church. However far any estab- 
lished government may fall below the ideal, 
it is yet better than none. ''The powers 
that be are ordained of God,'* although 
Nero may wield the scepter. Forms of 
government are subject to change and ma}^ 
be altered in order to conform to higher 
ideals; but the existence of government 
itself is essential to the fulfillment of the 
purposes of God. 

But, however formidable the assault, the 
apostle does not allow any fears of defeat to 
eclipse his hope for the future. Victory, 
however long deferred, is sure to come at 
last to the Christian and to the Church. 
**Be of good cheer," the Lord said; **I 
have overcome the world." The weapons 
he has put into our hands are amply suffi- 

251 



Revelation of Saint John 

cient for our needs, nor are any agencies 
necessary beyond those with which he has 
supplied us. 

* ' Fire came down from God out of heaven, 
and devoured them.'* The *'fire'' here 
is undoubtedly the fire of the Holy Ghost, 
the baptism from above of which John the 
Baptist spake when he said, '' He [the 
Christ] shall baptize you with the Holy 
Ghost and with fire.'' There came, it may 
be, to the apostle, when he wrote these 
words, memories of an incident of his life 
(Luke ix, 51-56). In his anger at the in- 
hospitable Samaritans, with a spirit of vin- 
dictiveness at the insult to his Master, he 
had said, ''Lord, wilt thou that we com- 
mand fire to come down from heaven, and 
consume them, even as Elias did?'* How 
quickly followed the sharp rebuke of the 
Lord Jesus, '* Ye know not what manner of 
spirit ye are of." The weapons Christ uses 
are not carnal, but spiritual. The fire 
which is to devour Gog and Magog is the 
Holy Spirit who descended upon the Church 
at Pentecost. The destruction which awaits 
them is that of their sins and animosity, not 
of their persons. The Spirit of truth when 
he comes reproves the world ' ' of judg- 

252 



Progressive Steps 

ment, because tlie prince of this world is 
judged." 

And both the struggle and the victory 
are for each individual believer, as well as 
for the Church at large. '' We know that 
whosoever is born of God sinneth not ; but 
he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, 
and that wicked one toucheth him not." 
*'Ye are of God, little children, and have 
overcome them : because greater is he that 
is in you, than he that is in the world." 

Thus the consummation to which the 
apostolic seer looked forward is reached at 
last. The Lamb into whose hands the do- 
minion of all things was committed has pre- 
vailed. He has ''put down all rule and 
all authority and power." '' He [that is, 
God] hath put all things under his feet." 
Principalities and powers are '^ subject unto 
him." He who was lifted up upon the 
cross is now on the ''great white throne." 
The Father, he himself had said, gave him 
"authority to execute judgment also, be- 
cause he is the Son of man." The time of 
the fulfillment of this promise has come. 
Death, "the last enemy," is destroyed. 
The gates of Hades have no longer power 
to resist the forces of the kingdom of Christ. 

253 



Revelation of Saint John 

Nothing that iwS hostile to him can look upon 
his face. Daniel's prophecy has been 
brought to pass. ^' The iron, the clay, the 
brass, the silver, and the gold *' are '' broken 
to pieces together,'' and become ''like the 
chaff of the summer threshing floors;" and 
the wind has '' carried them away," that no 
place is '' found for them." The kingdom 
which the God of heaven has set up has 
consumed all other kingdoms and stands for 
ever (Dan. ii, 35, 44; vii, 13, 14). 

But there is one thought developed in the 
closing paragraph of chapter xx which de- 
serves a moment's consideration. It is that 
in the relation which men and things sUvStain 
to the Lord Jesus Christ lies the true test of 
character and the standard of future, as well 
as present judgment. ' ' Set for the fall and 
rising again of many in Israel," through 
him ''the thoughts of many hearts" are 
revealed (Luke ii, 34, 35). He is, as has 
been aptly said, the touchstone of human 
hearts. And it will be by the " inasmuch as 
ye did " or " did it not " unto him that the 
final sentence on men will be determined. 

This truth is set forth in the expression, 
" the book of life." " Whosoever was not 
found written in the book of life was cast 

254 



Progressive Steps 

into the lake of fire/* In the prophecy of 
Daniel, to which there is evidently refer- 
ence in this paragraph, mention is made of 
'' books*' that '' were opened." The writer 
of the Apocalypse also alludes to the 
'' books " that *' were opened." But he adds 
to this that *' another book w^as opened, 
which is the book of life;" and in chapter 
xxi, 27, he calls it ''the Lamb's book of 
life." It is apparent that this additional 
standard of judgment belongs to the New 
Testament dispensation and is something 
having relation to the specific work of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul has this in mind 
in saying (i Cor. xvi, 22), ''If any man 
love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be 
Anathema Maran-atha." The Saviour had 
given a foreshadowing of the same truth in 
telling his disciples, " Whosoever therefore 
shall confess me before men, him will I 
confess also before my Father which is in 
heaven." We hear an echo of this in the 
epistle to Sardis (Rev. iii, 5): "He that 
overcometh, the same shall be clothed in 
white raiment ; and I will not blot out his 
name out of the book of life, but I will con- 
fess his name before my Father, and before 
his angels." The same truth is indicated 

255 



Revelation of Saint John 

by John in his first epistle (i John v, 12): 
** He that hath the Son hath life; and he 
that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 

The character of men is not to be esti- 
mated solely by their actions, and to make 
destiny depend upon them would hardly be 
just. Every act, whether of word or deed, 
has its own standard of judgment. That 
which determines its quality as good or bad 
is its fitness or unfitness to its designed end ; 
in this consists its conformity with its ideal. 
A moral agent has, however, another stand- 
ard of judgment. Goodness or badness in 
his case is determined by the conformity of 
his motives, purposes, and intentions with 
his ideal, which is the fulfillment of the will 
of his Creator. Not only what he does, but 
why he does it, enters into the estimate of 
his moral character. A perfect man would 
be one in whom faith in the Son of God and 
experimental knowledge of him are in 
unison, one whose conduct springs out of a 
living faith, and in whom a correct faith is 
translated into actual and complete right- 
eousness of conduct. 

It is a fact that upon the fundamental 
principles of ethics the great religions of the 
earth do not differ so much from each other 

256 



Progressive Steps 

as presumption leads us to anticipate. This 
agreement of the moral codes occasions sur- 
prise and even perplexity upon the first ap- 
preciation of the fact. But the explana- 
tion is simple and easy. These codes are 
largely the result of observation upon the 
established and permanent laws of the 
universe, deductions from facts with which 
testimony, reason, and consciousness make 
men acquainted. The data being the same, 
the conclusions reached are closely similar. 
It is the motive power which they bring 
to bear upon men in order to induce them 
to actual realization of and conformity to 
their moral convictions that determines the 
superiority or inferiority of religions. That 
which constitutes the distinguishing char- 
acteristic of Christianity and gives it its 
immense preeminence over all other forms 
of religious belief is that it reveals to us 
the cross of Christ as the greatest motive 
power that can operate in human nature. 
To depreciate or ignore the atonement is 
to leave out the differentiating element of 
the religion of Jesus. '' He that believeth 
on the Son hath everlasting life : and he 
that believeth not the Son shall not see life • 
but the wrath of God abideth on him " 

17 2D7 



Revelation of Saint John 

(John iii, 36). '' We must all be made man- 
ifest before the judgment seat of Christ ; 
that each one may receive the things done 
in the body '' (2 Cor. v, 10, Revised Ver- 
sion). Wherever, indeed, the full revela- 
tion of the Lord Jesus Christ has not been 
given to men they are to be judged by ** the 
law written in their hearts, their conscience 
also bearing witness '' (Rom. ii, 15). But 
where the revelation has been made it is in 
likeness to him that the test of character 
lies. And for the final determination of 
destiny there must be, not only the books 
of words and deeds, but also the '' Lamb's 
book of life." 

258 



PART vn- 

XTbe 1F&eal ot tbe ftfngbom 



The Ideal of the Kingdom 



PART VII 

The Ideal of the Kingdom 

By these long steps has the holy apostle 
brought us, through this wonderful record 
of perils, conflicts, defeats, victories, judg- 
ments, and blessings, to the conclusion 
toward which he has from the commence- 
ment been tending ; and in the two chap- 
ters which close the book he depicts the 
ideal and perfect kingdom of Christ as it 
appeared in his conception of it. As Eze- 
kiel in his lonely captivity by the Chebar 
was comforted with anticipations of a new 
Canaan and a new temple, wherein Israel, 
purified by its sufferings and cleansed from 
idolatry, should enjoy renewed and uninter- 
rupted communion w4th Jehovah, so was 
the exiled apostle of Patmos gladdened with 
a prophetic foresight of new heavens and 
a new earth in which righteousness shall 
dwell, not as a wayfarer or one that tarrieth 
for a night, but as a permanent and eter- 
nal inhabitant. For the instruction of all 
the generations to follow John presents 
his inspired conception of what the king- 
dom of Christ in its purest and final form 

261 



Revelation of Saint John 

is, whether it be conceived as existing in 
the heart of an individual believer, or as 
synonymous with the Church, the body of 
believers. 

We are certainly not compelled, and it 
may seriously be questioned whether we 
are allowed, to interpret the concluding 
chapters of the Apocalypse as a vision of 
the future heaven which awaits the just, of 
the glorified and celestial state of believers 
who have passed through the trials of earth 
and have entered into their final reward. 
The probabilities are very strong that it is 
rather the vision of a redeemed and purified 
earth, the victory which shall result here 
from the complete ascendancy of Christ, 
which is presented to our faith and hope. 
This interpretation of the vision would give 
consistency and unity to the book. It would 
account for the discrimination which is cer- 
tainly made between the ''city" and the 
nations which '* walk in the light thereof,** 
and also for the statement that the leaves of 
the tree of life are ' ' for the healing of the 
nations; '* and it is confirmed by the fact 
that in his first epistle, which was probably 
written subsequently to the Apocalypse, 
John declared that it had not been revealed 

262 



The Ideal of the Kingdom 

or made manifest to him at that time what 
we shall be when Christ shall be manifested 
to us in his heavenly glory (i John iii, 2) — 
a statement hardly to be reconciled with 
truth if the vision of the Apocalypse is to 
be taken as a revelation of the heavenly 
state. 

The careful student will not fail to ob- 
serve that upon all questions relating to the 
life beyond the grave the Bible preserves a 
marked reticence; nor is there any more 
impressive evidence of its divinity than 
this. To gratify a curiosity which might 
easily become morbid is no part of its ob- 
ject and might defeat its more practical 
purpose. While, therefore, it shows us the 
rent veil and opens the curtain sufficiently 
to reveal to us a world lying beyond, it does 
not allow us to penetrate further or uncover 
to us the mysteries hidden therein. It is 
enough for us to know that a way leads 
from the holy place to the holy of holies, 
and that Christ is that way, the life of the 
world beyond as he is of this, and the truth 
and reality of both alike. It is not certain 
that a revelation to us of the glories of the 
celestial state would realize to us the satis- 
faction we anticipated. Even were a reve- 

263 



Revelation of Saint John 

lation made to us in terms which we were 
able to grasp and comprehend, that which 
would be blissful to our glorified and trans- 
formed faculties might not seem so to our 
earthly ones, and the revelation might be- 
come rather a stumbling-block than a stim- 
ulus. We know that the prophecies con- 
cerning the Messiah in the Old Testament 
were not only obscure, but even seemed to 
involve contradictions, which, however, his 
advent in the flesh explained and recon- 
ciled. This may be the case also in regard 
to the future state of the blessed. And God 
is no less merciful, doubtless, in what he 
withholds than in what he imparts. 

It is the ideal kingdom of Christ here in 
its perfect and completed form, and not the 
glorified realm above, which John so ex- 
quisitely describes. The imagery he uses 
to adumbrate it may be glowing, but it is 
not beyond what may be gathered, though 
in less poetic dress, from other parts of the 
Scriptures. Even should it be conceded 
that the picture is simply an ideal one, a 
dream of beauty not meant to be realized, 
in fact, something the attainment of which 
lies beyond the possibilities of this mortal 
life, still the presentation to us of the per- 

264 



The Ideal of the Kingdom 

feet state can not be without its uses of 
help and comfort. 

But it was not the cast of John's mind to 
be pleased with imagined fancies. It has 
been well said (in Guesses at TrutJi) that * * in 
character, in affection, the ideal is the only 
real/* It is not without reason that John 
has so elaborately described the agencies 
with which Christ has so amply endowed his 
Church and his disciples, and which are suf- 
ficient, if rightly used, to reduce to actual 
experience all that is portrayed as ideal. 

In one of those graphic sketches which 
connect the Apocalypse so closely with the 
gospels John convinces us that it is fact, 
and not fancy, which has been engaging his 
pen. At the beginning of his ministry 
upon earth Christ, we are told, was taken 
to ''an exceeding high mountain,'* whence 
''all the kingdoms of the world, and the 
glory of them,'* were shown him ; and Satan 
said to him, "All these things will I give 
thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship 
me.*' From this temptation the Master re- 
coiled with indignant rebuke. Instead 
thereof, he chose deliberately the path of 
suffering and privation, the path that led 
to the garden and the cross, to Gethsemane 

265 



Revelation of Saint John 

and Calvary. With full appreciation of all 
it involved, he took the cup put into his 
hands by the Father. In the closing scenes 
of the Apocalypse the battle is supposed to 
have been fought, the conflict has ceased, 
and now John himself stands, as Christ had 
stood, upon '' a great and high mountain ;** 
and, behold, there was shown him ^'that 
great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending 
out of heaven from God." The cross has 
conquered, and the kingdoms of the earth 
have become the possession of our Lord and 
of his Christ. And he who himself over- 
came the world has given assurance to all 
his followers, however humble, that they, 
too, may be victors. 

Theories of the Church and kingdom of 
Christ, definitions of their nature and mis- 
sion, abound. Many have taken on them 
to specify the notes or characteristic marks 
by which the true Church may be identi- 
fied. It cannot, therefore, fail of interest 
or profit to learn what the holy St. John, 
the inspired apostle who leaned on the 
bosom of Jesus, has to say of the tests by 
which we may try the spirits to see whether 
they are of God. Under the veil of figure 
and metaphor, we have the profound and 

266 



The Ideal of the Kingdom 

long-studied conviction of one who was 
competent to decide, and to whom the wisest 
of mankind may look up with reverence for 
instruction. Nor need anyone have diffi- 
culty in determining for himself whether 
the kingdom of Christ finds its realization 
in his own soul, or long hesitate in identify- 
ing the true Church of Christ, which is 
simply the kingdom of Christ ruling in 
society. 

I. The Distinctive Features of the King- 
dom, — The first mark of the kingdom upon 
which John lays stress is that it is super- 
natural in its origin. The holy city that he 
saw descended '' out of heaven from God." 
It came '*down from God out of heaven, 
prepared as a bride adorned for her hus- 
band.'' It is not the resultant of any proc- 
ess of development or growth from a prior 
state. Whatever preparation may precede 
and make ready a basis for its reception, 
the kingdom itself is inaugurated by the di- 
rect and personal agency of the Holy Spirit. 
Whatever instrumentalities the Holy Ghost 
may use as his media, his is the undivided 
quickening power. In this declaration the 
writer of the Apocalypse and the author of 
the fourth gospel are in agreement. It is 

267 



Revelation of Saint John 

he who records the words of the Lord Jesus, 
'* Except a man be born of water and of 
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
of God" (Johniii, 5). 

Another feature of this kingdom is that 
its mission lies specifically in the realm of 
divine things. It has '^ the glory of God/' 
The name of the city is, '' The Lord is 
there'' (Ezek. xlviii, 35). Its God is its 
glory. It is God's witness in nature and 
to men of a power above and beyond nature 
and man. There are natural means and 
agencies endowed by the Creator to carry 
forward earthly work ; but he has planted 
the kingdom in the midst of mankind, and 
its one great business is to testify of him. 
For the doing of this work the Church is 
accountable. In whatever other tasks the 
Church may engage or whatever methods 
it may employ in fulfilling its mission, its 
one supreme office and distinct charac- 
teristic is to bear witness to a divine pres- 
ence and a divine power in the world. '' In 
his temple doth everyone speak of his 
glory." All art, ritual, discipline, phi- 
lanthropy, and economies that do not direct- 
ly lead to God, and have not for their 
purpose to emphasize the need, the pres- 

268 



The Ideal of the Kingdom 

ence, and the inward experience of the su- 
pernatural, are aside from the purpose of 
the kingdom and below its ideal. 

A third mark of the kingdom is that it 
has to do primarily with the religious facul- 
ties. As the distinction between nature 
and the supernatural is permanent and inef- 
faceable, so the Church and the world can 
never be made to coincide, however widely 
the Church may be extended or however 
thoroughly the world may be permeated by 
the spirit of the Church. '' The nations of 
them which are saved shall walk in the 
light*' of the new Jerusalem, ''the kings 
of the earth do bring their glory and honor 
into it; '* but the distinction between it 
and them exists and abides. It will be as 
true in the last days as when our Lord first 
spoke the words, '' My kingdom is not of 
this world." However omnipotent and 
omnipresent God may be in nature and the 
universe, he can never be made identical 
with them ; and, however thoroughly they 
may be penetrated by his Spirit and come 
to perfect accord with him, they can never 
be so lifted up as to rival or supersede his 
supremacy. And, although common life 
and work may be sanctified by being done 

269 



Revelation of Saint John 

in the spirit of Christ, and religious life 
may flow out from the central source 
through all the ordinary and natural chan- 
nels of our being, the religious and the sec- 
ular can never be made one. '* Out of Zion 
shall go forth the law, and the word of the 
Lord from Jerusalem; *' but the discharge 
of earthly duties and the reformation of 
earthly conditions can never exhaust the 
obligations of man. There will still remain 
those relations to the supernatural of whose 
existence and sovereignty it is the preemi- 
nent mission of the Church to testify. The 
kingdom of God is ' ^ righteousness, and 
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.*' 

2. T/ie Central Principle of the Kingdo7n. 
— The central figure in this kingdom is 
Christ crucified. It is the Lamb around 
whom all the imagery of the apostle's de- 
scription gathers. The light — luminary, 
rather — of the kingdom was ^ ' like unto a 
stone most precious, even like a jasper 
stone, clear as crystal.'' That this refers to 
Christ seems probable from Rev. iv, 3, 
where it is said that he that sat upon the 
throne *' was to look upon like a jasper and 
a sardine stone,'' and is further confirmed 
by Rev. xxi, 23, where the Lamb is said to 

270 



The Ideal of the Kingdom 

be '' the light" of the city. Moreover, it is 
said, ''The first foundation was jasper,'' 
which is but confirmatory of what Peter had 
said in the presence of John to the '' rulers, 
and elders, and scribes: " ''This is the 
stone which was set at nought of you build- 
ers, which is become the head of the corner. 
Neither is there salvation in any other." 
(Acts iv, II, 12.) 

Still further, " The building of the wall 
of it was of jasper." Christ crucified is the 
defense and the bulwark of the kingdom. 
The atonement of Christ is the most pow- 
erful argument the Church can use and 
constitutes its strongest claim upon the rea- 
son and heart of men. It is " the power 
of God, and the wisdom of God." It is 
Christ crucified that makes the separation 
between the kingdom and the circumjacent 
world. It is not in its ethics that the dis- 
tinguishing peculiarity of Christianity lies, 
but in the preaching of the cross. In the 
opinion of John any other definition of 
Christianity throws down Christianity's only 
wall of safety and separation. 

Yet there is no exclusiveness about the 
kingdom. The city has three gates on each 
of its four sides, facing the four quarters 

271 



Revelation of Saint John 

of the globe, that all men may find ready 
access. *' Every several gate is of one 
pearl'* — that pearl of great price which 
Christ said a man should be willing to sell 
all that he has to buy, becoming eternally 
rich by the exchange. 

Nor is there any narrowness. Its length 
and breadth and height exceed even those 
large measurements which Ezekiel thought 
to be ample enough for the ideal temple he 
saw. ^ ' Whatsoever things are true, what- 
soever things are honest, whatsoever things 
are just, whatsoever things are pure, what- 
soever things are lovely, whatsoever things 
are of good report ; if there be any virtue, 
and if there be any praise*' — all these 
things belong legitimately to the kingdom. 
The kings of the earth may ' ' bring their 
glory and honor into it;" only that which 
''defileth** or ^'worketh abomination** or 
'* maketh a lie ** is excluded. When once 
a man in the center of his being is rightly 
adjusted to the Lamb of God, the center of 
all being, he may unfold all his powers 
and give exercise to every faculty of his 
renewed nature safely, wisely, completely, 
without fear of infringement upon any other 
being or of going astray from his Creator. 

212, 



The Ideal of the Kingdom 

3. Negative Characteristics, — Not less re- 
markable is the negative side of the king- 
dom, the absence from it of many things 
with which we are familiar. When an ideal 
has been attained much that was necessary 
in the process of attainment falls away as 
obsolete ; the scaffolding which is used in 
the erection of a building is removed when 
the building is completed. 

There is a noticeable avoidance in the 
closing chapters of the Apocalypse of any 
reference to the sacraments, to ritual, or to 
such like means of grace. John saw '* no 
temple therein ; for the Lord God Almighty 
and the Lamb are the temple of it.'' 
'' When that which is perfect is come, then 
that which is in part shall be done away." 
When the consummation of the kingdom 
has been reached the relation of the soul to 
its Creator shall not be through interme- 
diate agencies, but direct and intuitive. 

There is no mention made of any special 
priestly class, for the promise shall have its 
complete fulfillment to all, ^^ Ye are a 
chosen generation, a royal priesthood;" 
and all life shall be a priestly work and 
service. 

Nor is there any allusion to the prophetic 

18 273 



Revelation of Saint John 

office as a separate function. '' They need 
no candle, neither light of the sun ; for the 
Lord God giveth them light/* ' * The anoint- 
ing which ye have received of him abideth 
in you, and ye need not that any man teach 
you'' (i John ii, 27). The prediction of 
Jeremiah (Jer. xxxi, 34) has reached its 
time of fulfillment : ' ' They shall teach no 
more every man his neighbor, and every 
man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: 
for they shall all know me, from the least 
of them unto the greatest of them, saith 
the Lord/ 

Yet upon this point, more almost than 
upon any other, it is of the utmost im- 
portance that we shall ' ' distinguish the 
times/' We must not assume, because 
these aids and appliances are not needful 
in the perfected state of the kingdom, that 
they are not essential in the formative pe- 
riod, and thus, at great risk and with immi- 
nent peril, neglect or depreciate those 
means of grace which the Creator has 
deemed necessary for our present condition. 

4. Tke Fruits and Results of the Kingdom. 
— They in whom the kingdom rules shall 
have access to the tree of life, that heavenly 
wisdom of which Solomon says, ' ^ She is a 

274 



The Ideal of the Kingdom 

tree of life to them that lay hold upon her : 
and happy is everyone that retaineth her '* 
(Prov. iii, i8). '' This is life eternal/' One 
greater than Solomon says, ' ' that they 
might know thee the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent '' (John 
xvii, 3). Their lives shall abound in fruit- 
fulness. Their ministry shall be, like the 
Lord's, '' for the healing of the nations,'* a 
remedy for all the spiritual and earthly 
maladies of mankind. 

The curse of sin shall be destroyed, ' ' and 
there shall be no more curse." *' Christ 
hath redeemed us from the curse of the 
law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. iii, 
13). ''The blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
cleanseth us from all sin" (i John i, 7). 
And walking ' ' in the light, as he is in the 
light," and being ''pure in heart," his fol- 
lowers shall " see God." " They shall see 
his face; and his name shall be in their 
foreheads." 

Thus with this sublime vision closes this 
marvelous book. There is no truth re- 
vealed elsewhere in the sacred Scriptures 
that may not be found in its pages. So 
complete is it, indeed, that "if any man 

2V5 



Revelation of Saint John 

shall add unto these things, God shall add 
unto him the plagues that are written in 
this book/' Nor is there any truth revealed 
in this book which may not be found else- 
where in the Scriptures, so perfectly does 
it harmonize with all divinely inspired truth. 
Therefore, ''if any man shall take away 
from the words of the book of this prophecy, 
God shall take away his part out of the 
book of life, and out of the holy city, and 
from the things which are written in this 
book." 

The Apocalypse of St. John fitly closes 
the sacred canon ; for, drawing so much, as 
it does, from all the rest of God's wonderful 
book, it holds the truths derived therefrom 
in a coherent union never to be dissolved 
or broken. 

276 



Ilnbei: 



Albigenses, 137. 

Apocalypse. See Revelation. 

Apostolic and present age, resemblance between, 198. 

Asceticism and worldliness contrasted, 148-150. 

Asceticism, prevalence and danger of, 138, 139. 

Atonement, all-sufficiency of, 164, 165. 

Babylon, destruction of, 199. 

relation of Church and State in, 179-181. 
Balaam, 147, 148. 
Barbarism, characteristics of, 244-247. 

possibilit}?- of reversion to, 74, 75, 243. 
Beast, scarlet colored, 186-188. 
Bible, reticence of, 263. 

Christ crucified, the central figure of Revelation, 270, 171. 
Christian liberty, 272. 

Christianity, antithesis between true and false, 184, 185. 
Church and State, interdependence of, no, 249, 250. 
Church, conquering weapons of the, no, 155, 202. 

the ideal, 266, ff. 

notes of the true, 266, ff. 

separable from world, 269, 270. 

supernatural origin of the, 267. 

a witness to God, 268. 
Church unity, 228,^. 

an apostolic hope, 230, 231. 

how attained, 236, 237. 

importance of, 232. 
Daniel, prophecy of four beasts in, 115. 
David, duration of dynasty of, 209. 

277 



Index 

Dragon, the ; divine protection from, io8. 

hostility of, to the church, 107. 
Dry bones. See Ezekiel, vision of dry l)ones. 
Emblem, of seal, 39-41. 

of trumpet, '56, 57. 
Epistles to seven churches of Asia, their lesson to us, 34. 
Euphrates, reference to, in sixth trumpet, 72, 73. 
Ezekiel, prophecy of, 163, 164, 205,^. 

vision of dry bones, 207, 208. 
False prophet, marks of, 133. 

False prophetism, second wild beast a symbol of, 126. 
Fifth trumpet. See Trumpet fifth. 
First trumpet. See Trumpet first. 
Forty-two, symbolism of, 19. 
Fourth trumpet. See Trumpet fourth. 
Gentilism, mission of, 234. 
Gnosticism perilous to Christianity, 136. 
God, knowledge of ; how obtained, 59-61. 
Gog and Magog, 209, 240-243, 252, 253. 
Harvest scene, meaning of, 157-159. 

Holy Spirit, his work preceded by that of Christ, 141, 142. 
Individuality an outgrowth of Christianity, 134, 135. 
Inspiration and human genius, 84. 
Interpretation, principles of, 10. 

reference to Old Testament necessary in, 13-16. 

structure of book a guide to, 11-13. 
Jewish ritual a key to emblems and symbols, 16. 
Joel, prophecy of, 1 5 5-157- 

Judaism, its office in the plan of redemption, 233. 
Knowledge of God through his works and word, 59-61. 
Lamb's book of life, 254, ff, 
Lukewarmness, evils of, 69, 70. 
Man and the earth, close connection between, 63, 64. 
Manichaeism, 137. 

Mediatorial sovereignty, 45, 46, 214. 
Michael the archangel, 109. 
Millennium, 211, 212, 217, 218. 

278 



Index 

Mohammedanism illustrative of fifth trumpet, 70, 71. 

Nicolaitanes, 136. 

Nineveh, special characteristics of, 178, 179. 

Numbers, importance of, 17. 

Old Testament, its relation to the New, 93-95. 

reference to it necessar}^ in interpretation, 13-16. 
Palestine, geographical seclusion of, 108, 109. 
Paulicianism, 137. 

Peculiarities distinguishing the Revelation, 9. 
Plagues, the, 170. 

Prophetical books, importance of study of, 14. 
Purpose of the Revelation, 9. 
Resurrection, spiritual, 224, 225. 
Revelation, general purpose of the, 9. 

limitations of the, 81, 82. 

theme of the, 23. 

unity of the, 22. 
Roman Empire, policy of administration, 117, 118. 
Rome, Church of, 192, 193. 
Sacraments, absence of allusion to, 273. 
Satan, his power restrained, 219. 

loosing of, 238. 
Sea, emblem of secular world, 113. 
Seal, emblematic meaning of, 39-41. 

loosing of, 44. 
Sealed book, meaning of, 41, 42. 
Sealed elect, 50-52. 
Second trumpet. See Trumpet second. 
Second wild beast, number of, 142-148. 
Seven churches of Asia, spiritual condition of, 30. 
Seven seals, opening of, 46. 
Seven, symbolism of, 18. 
Seventh trumpet. See Trumpet seventh. 
Simon Magus, 136. 
Six, symbolism of, 19. 
Sixth trumpet. See Trumpet sixth. 
Theme of the Revelation, 23. 

279 



Index 

Third trumpet. See Trumpet third. 
Three and a half, symbolism of, 19-22. 
Tree of life, 274, 275. 
True prophet, marks of, 1 29-131. 
Trumpet, emblematic meaning of, 56, 57. 

fifth, explanation of, 67-71. 

first, explanation of, 65, 

fourth, explanation of, 66. 

second, explanation of, 65. 

seventh, explanation of, 97. 

sixth, explanation of, 72-76. 

third, explanation of, 66. 
Twelve, symbolism of, 18. 

Twelve hundred and sixty, symbolism of, 19, 88, 109. 
Two witnesses, interpretation of, 79. 
Tyre, deleterious influence upon religion, 182, 183. 

emblem of commerce, 181, 182, 195, 196. 
Unity of the church. See Church unity. 
Vials, vision of, 169. 
Victory, anticipation of, 150. 
Vintage scene, meaning of, 159-165. 
Witnesses, the two ; fulfilled in Law and Prophets, 87-92. 
Woes, the three, 76. 
World empires, 189. 

recurrence of, impossible, 191 • 
World religions, agreement of moral codes, 256, 257. 
Worldliness and asceticism contrasted, 148-150. 
Worldliness, blasphemy of, 123, 124. 

definition of, 120. 

first wild beast, a symbol of, 112. 

recuperative power of, 122. 

280 



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